It seemed it was time to put my alternate plan into action.
“Z, if there’s a plan, now’s the time,” Rex muttered.
“These kids have survived worse than you,” Jake said coldly. “And I won’t let any harm come to them.”
I gave Rex a sharp nod. “Working on it,” I whispered back.
A few zombies had wandered nearby. As soon as I’d felt them, I had established a connection. Even without the others helping, I was able to use their proximity to me to take control of the creatures. None of the others had any idea what I was about to do.
“You really want to listen to him,” I called out. “If you pursue this path, it won’t end well for you.”
The sound of their laughter made my face heat up. Glaring at them, I forced myself to hide my automatic embarrassment. The zombies had nearly reached us, and these men had no clue as to the danger they now faced. These creatures hadn’t eaten in days. What little brain power they had left was fully devoted to finding fresh meat.
I was about to provide it.
Chapter Ten
They heard the moans before anything else.
Jake shot me a wide-eyed look when the creatures emerged from the woods behind the armed goons. “Don’t worry, they won’t hurt us,” I told my friends. “They’re here to help.”
“Z…” Rex’s voice trailed off. I gave him a sideways look and frowned at his fear-filled expression.
The armed men froze in place for a moment. Then a few of them turned to face the new threat. Their leader eyed me uncertainly. “You said they wouldn’t hurt you. How could you know what they’ll do?”
There were three zombies. They were likely not anything the men would normally have trouble handling, but with us armed at their front and the creatures at their back, their resources were spread a bit thin.
I gave him a cold smile, but didn’t answer.
“We did try to warn you,” Jake said. He gave a slight shake of his head. I knew it was aimed at me, but I had seen no other options.
A quick look around told me we had the upper hand now. “Look, with our… friends over there, we have you outnumbered. And you know those three things can take you out without hesitation. And as soon as I let them, they will.”
I made sure my voice held a fair amount of confidence… and maybe a bit of snarky attitude. “I’ll call them off if you let us pass. We are only a threat to you if you insist on pushing this.”
Two of the men gave their leader a nervous glance. Even from where I stood I could tell their hands were a bit shaky.
Apparently, at least a couple of them were smart enough to realize that if their leader wanted to push the issue, there was a high risk that some of them could get hurt. Or worse, turned.
Also apparent was their lack of backbone. Neither of them spoke their concerns. To me, that indicated the leader didn’t put up with anyone who questioned his judgement. I frowned and gave in to the urge to push the zombies a bit closer to them.
“Your decision,” I reminded him. “But you may want to consider that, no matter how this goes, someone will get hurt. At this point, the only ones in danger from those creatures are you and your men. Back off, let us pass, and I’ll call them off.”
The leader’s greasy hair swung down over his eyes as he looked back and forth between the zombies and me. “I could shoot you and those monsters, little girl. What would stop me?”
Jake gave a sharp whistle. “That would be me,” he said when the leader’s attention went to him. Him and the gun he aimed steadily at the leader’s chest.
If looks could kill, the guy would be dead already. I got shivers from Jake’s cold glare.
The leader gave a huff and a dry chuckle. He lowered his weapon. “You got guts kid,” he snarled. “You win. For now.”
I frowned at the obvious threat in his voice. My pet zombies moved forward. “You might want to put this whole encounter out of your mind,” I warned. “If I see any of you near us again, it will not end well for you.”
To emphasize my point, the creatures stepped forward and growled. The color drained from our adversary’s face when the zombies began to close the distance between them.
“This never happened. Right?” I said.
The closer I let the creatures get to the men, the harder it was to prevent an attack. Their natural drive to go after any normal human was difficult to counter. Especially while I dangled the potential for a fresh meal right in front of them.
The scent of fresh blood. The sound as it pumped through their veins. The hunger roared through me. Filled me to the core. The longer I stayed connected, the deeper I could feel myself submerge in the sensation. Deeper and deeper, until it was all I could feel.
A sudden hand on my arm pulled me back to myself. I had my sword out and at the leader’s throat. He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
Apparently, I had.
Even if only for a moment, the bloodlust had gotten to me again. I may not have hurt him badly, but the cut on the man’s throat dripped with a small amount of blood. Even now my grip on my control was weak.
“I’m not kidding,” I said. Despite my best efforts, my voice shook. “You really want to leave. Now.”
My loss of control had been obvious. As was the fact the creatures now seemed more amped up and ready to attack.
The leader made the smart call. He gave a nod to his men and they slid to one side of the road. We went to the other side and walked forward slowly. I focused on the creatures to prevent an attack as my friends walked past them. I took my eyes off the zombies to check what the other threat was up to, and felt my eyes grow wide when I saw the leader with his gun up toward Jake.
Panic struck me like a bolt of lightning.
“NO!” I cried.
The zombies felt my anger and surged forward. Gunfire erupted. “SCATTER!” I yelled to my friends. We’d already lost most of our group, I couldn’t lose anyone else.
Screams echoed throughout the area as the zombies cut through their defenses and dragged two of them down. One was the leader. The four others watched in horror as their leader was mauled by a pair of zombies, and the other man who’d shot toward us had been bitten by the third monster before he managed to gun it down.
The leader dropped his gun, breath gurgling from his ruined throat. One of the unharmed men raised his weapon toward his fallen friends. I turned away before more gunfire rang out.
My control of the situation had evaporated. It was time to leave. “Let’s go, everyone!” I called.
I finally took the time to look around, and saw Kate corral the other kids and take them at a run down the road. Jake! Where was Jake? I glanced back toward the fight, and saw him on the ground near the skirmish.
“JAKE!” I yelled.
Heedless of the dangers, I raced back to him. Blood coated his side and arm. “Jake!”
When I reached him, his eyes opened and he shook his head. His gaze seemed to go right through me.
I helped him sit up. “You fell. Did you hit your head?” His glassy eyes shifted around the area, never stopping at one point. I snapped my fingers to get his attention. “Jake! Did you hit your head?”
“I… Yeah. Yeah, I- uh… I think so…”
My eyes roamed over his body to figure out where the blood was coming from. I spotted a wound on the inner part of his left arm, and a crease on his left side.
“We need to go, Jake,” I said. “We have to catch up to the group and get the first aid kits. You were shot.”
He pulled his left arm across his abdomen and pushed himself up with his right. I put an arm under his and helped him the rest of the way up.
When I looked up, I froze.
Chapter Eleven
Having a gun stuck in your face isn’t exactly a pleasant experience. Especially when supporting a friend who was shot and may or may not be sporting a concussion.
“What do you want?” I snapped through clenched teeth.
Jake’s arm tighten
ed around my shoulders. A quick look up at his face told me that, even as confused as he was, he realized the trouble we were in. Neither of us could get to a weapon, and the four men who remained didn’t seem likely to give us a chance to do so.
“You killed our friend!” the largest of the men screamed. “You controlled the zombies, and you killed him!”
His hands shook with his rage, the gun remained aimed at me, but bounced around a bit. “Technically, you killed him,” I argued.
One of the others looked more closely at me and he gave a slight chuckle. “Guys, we just found someone who could be our ticket to an easier life. This is the girl from those posters we saw. Remember? The one who started this whole mess.”
The gun wielder suddenly grinned. “You know what that means, fellas? That means this pretty little girl gets to come with us. And the guy… well, he’s injured. He’d just slow us down.”
I felt Jake get ripped away from me. “NO!” I yelled. Someone grabbed my arm, which halted my attempt to follow him.
The other two laughed and dragged Jake into the woods. “Don’t worry about me, Z! Just go!” he yelled.
Even if I could, I would never leave without him. Jake had been my protector, and my friend, since the beginning. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.
Tears threatened to fall. I wanted nothing more than to allow these men to suffer for what they threatened to do to Jake.
The meathead who held my arm grabbed my free arm and pulled them together. Despite my best efforts, he tied them together and pulled me further from where the others took Jake. He took my sword and dropped it to the ground.
I pulled and fought with everything. The ropes dug painfully into my arms. Still, he managed to drag me down the road. We headed the opposite direction as my friends. I had no idea if they even realized Jake and I were in trouble. No sound came from that end of the road.
A gunshot rang out, and all at once, the fight left my body. I sagged in my captor’s grip and sobbed.
Jake was… he was… I couldn’t even think the word. Nor could I bring myself to fight. I’d lost him. Poison tears flowed freely down my face. I didn’t have the energy or inclination to warn my captors about them.
The one who carried me away rubbed one finger under my eye. “Don’t cry, little one. His suffering is over. Yours has just begun.”
At his words, my tears stopped and my anger rose. “You won’t have a chance. Before the day is done, you’ll be what you hate most,” I snarled.
He just laughed before we turned off the road onto a dirt path. One I hadn’t noticed from the road. The path twisted and turned several times before it ended at a beat-up old cabin. There was a murky pond behind it and thick trees surrounded it.
My burst of anger faded until I only felt numb. The tears stopped. I allowed my captor to drop me into a room where he tied my feet together and left me on a thin blanket on the floor. Without a word, he turned and left.
I shifted until I could curl on my side and stared at the treetops outside the dirty window. Somewhere in those woods, Jake…
My eyes closed. Hot tears again flowed down my cheeks and for once, I didn’t try to stop them. If these men happened to get infected and turn… well, they’d earned it. They took Jake from me, so I would take their humanity from them.
The new leader would turn soon. A distant part of my mind told me it would be a bad idea to allow them to become infected. I might not be able to turn, but at this point, I was vulnerable to any other kind of attack. The zombies could still kill me.
A creak was all that warned me when the soon-to-be zombie came in again about an hour later. He coughed, a look of fear on his face. “What happened? Why am I sick? I was fine this morning!”
His face was flushed. Sweat dripped down his forehead. The eyes were the worst. Bloodshot and yellowed as he neared the end of his human life.
I huffed and looked back toward the window. My arms grew numb in my awkward position, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I could be killed by the newly formed creature, but I couldn’t care about that either.
My captor grabbed my arm and squeezed painfully tight. “Tell me! I need to know what’s happening!”
“I told you,” I answered hoarsely. “Earlier. You’re turning into what you hate the most. Or what you fear the most, at least,” I amended.
His dying eyes widened and I felt myself smile at his terror. “What do you… how?”
“You remember that poster you mentioned earlier?” I asked. “That was also a warning. I am Patient Zero. The carrier and starter of the outbreak. Did you really think you could drag me off without consequences? Especially after…”—my voice cracked—“after what you did to my friend?”
The cabin door slammed, and the nearly turned zombie whipped around to face the entrance. “They’ll kill me if they see me.”
He shook me and I winced at the new pain blooming in my arm. “Probably. After all, it is what happened to your former leader and other friend, whom the zombies bit.”
He snarled at me. He seemed almost like a wild animal backed into a corner. “This is all your fault, girl! You’ve doomed us!”
“Zach? What’s going on, man?” one of the new arrivals asked, his voice low and hesitant. “We can’t kill her if we want the reward.”
I let out a grunt when Zach dropped me to the floor and turned on his friends. They let out a gasp before the one who spoke raised his weapon. The tension spilled into the air like a heavy fog. “Sorry man… You know we have to.”
If I would have been more with it, I would have closed my eyes. Instead I screamed and tried to curl into a ball when the gunshot went off. Blood splattered around the room. My breaths came in heavy pants when I realized how much of it splattered on me.
“We need to clean up this mess,” the shooter said.
Despite the harshness of his words, I could hear sadness in his voice. “Don’t worry, girl. We’ll clean you up too.”
“Zero,” I said.
“Excuse me?” He stepped a bit closer, careful to avoid the toxic blood.
“My name is Zero. And his blood can’t turn me, because I turned him.”
My voice sounded dull, even to my ears. They must have decided conversation wasn’t exactly a great idea at the moment, because instead of a response, they only donned some rubber gloves and removed the body from the room. After a while, they came back to clean the rest of the room.
The shooter untied my feet and led me to a small bathroom that didn’t have a window. “Go on,” he said almost kindly. He untied my arms and gestured into the room. “Go get cleaned up.”
As I was closing the door, he looked down at the floor. “My name is Aaron.”
“I really don’t care,” I answered. “The undead have no names.”
Chapter Twelve
Mike
The argument began almost as soon as we were out of sight of our attackers. “How could we have missed that?” Shanti screeched. “Zero and Jake stayed behind!”
Kate shook her head. “We didn’t have a choice. We were outnumbered, and the monsters were clearly no longer under Zero’s control. They’ll catch up.”
I wanted to respond, but Rex beat me to it. “They may not be able to,” he argued. “We have to go back. It’s the only way to know for sure we’ll find them. Z would never leave any of us to fend for ourselves.”
“She’s not by herself,” Kate disputed. “Jake is with her. They’ll be fine.”
Ali and Alex remained quiet, apparently not comfortable enough to voice their opinion in the matter. Or they could have just been unsure of the right thing to do.
I stepped up next to Rex. “I, for one, think we should go back. Zero saved all of us at some point. If they’re in trouble, we owe it to her to help her.”
Rex looked at me in surprise, but quickly nodded. “See? We need to go back. And—no offense, Kate—you’re not one of the deciding votes in this case. Or… to put it another way; with Zero and Jake gon
e, I’m in charge. We’re going back.”
Kate huffed, but shook her head. “Fine. But we should leave the supplies and someone to guard them.”
“Alex, Ali, would you be able to guard the supplies?” Rex asked. “It will probably be the safer job.”
The siblings nodded. “Yeah, we can do that,” Alex answered softly.
Rex and I led the way. Shanti and Kate close behind as we ran back toward our attackers. As we drew nearer, we heard a gunshot followed by a scream of anguish. We picked up our pace. They were in trouble.
I let out a low whistle when we arrived. “Yikes.”
The zombies had fallen. There were two other bodies, which told me either the zombies had killed them, or their friends had after the creatures bit them. Rex went to look at them while Shanti and Kate peered into the woods.
I saw a dark puddle on the asphalt and bent down to see what it was. “Blood,” I said softly.
“Guys?” Shanti called. “I think there’s something happening in the woods.”
No one was visible on the road, so we jogged over to Shanti. “We need to be cautious,” Rex warned. “We have no idea what we’re walking into.”
Honestly, I had to admit I was impressed. Reluctantly. Even with two of his closest friends in imminent danger, Rex seemed calm and in control.
Until we spotted Jake on the ground ahead of us.
“Jake!” Rex raced to him, dropped to his knees, and immediately checked for a pulse. “Come on, man, don’t do this to me,” he muttered, eyes filled with tears.
Shanti stood with her hand over her mouth, while Kate looked as if she wanted to destroy whoever dared hurt Jake.
“Come on, Jake, you need to wake up!” I muttered.
Rex put his ear to Jake’s chest and held a hand in front of his mouth.
“He’s alive,” he said, some relief in his voice. “But he’s not doing well. We need to get the first aid kit. Shanti, you and Kate run back and grab it. Mike and I will stay here and do what we can for him until you get back.”
Countdown to Zero (Patient Zero Book 2) Page 5