Countdown to Zero (Patient Zero Book 2)

by Adrianne Lemke

  Unable to sit, I rose and moved toward the pile of supplies. “Let’s get some food. Then, I’m sorry, but we really need to move.”

  Rex sighed and squeezed my hand briefly. “I know. I’m sorry. Just felt tired and frustrated for a minute there. I’m good to go whenever you are.”

  I gripped his hand tightly. “You’re the best thing about this outbreak,” I said. “Now, come eat so we can get moving.”

  My stomach was doing flips, and I couldn’t imagine eating at the moment. Until I noticed apple trees next to the barn. Fresh apples sounded like heaven. I took a small, empty bag I found in the trailer and pointed to them. “Look! Fresh apples. I’m going to pick a few to take with us.”

  Rex grinned. “Sounds good. I’ll get out something we can eat for lunch.”

  There were several decent apples I was able to reach, so I took eight of them. A few of the not so good ones I stuck on top to give to Frodo before we left. He more than earned them.

  By the time I got back to Rex, he had opened a can of soup, and was basically drinking it. He tossed a can to me once I set the apples down in the trailer. Broccoli cheese. One of my favorites, even cold. In return I tossed him an apple.

  He grinned. “Thanks! This looks great.”

  I took two apples that had more bruises and bug marks in them and walked over to where Frodo grazed. “Thanks, bud. You’ve earned this rest. I’ll miss you,” I said as I stroked his neck.

  I ate the soup quickly and ate a smallish apple. The core, I gave to the dark horse. Rex had already given his to the big black and white. We tied our bags to the saddles with some cord Rex had found in the barn, and disposed of our trash inside the house.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get going.”

  Before leaving, Rex walked over to Frodo and rubbed his neck. He muttered something. When he turned to come back, I mounted. Rex got on quickly and breathed a sigh of relief.

  At my quizzical look, he grinned. “This is much more comfortable than that narrow bike seat. And he’ll be able to move faster.”

  Frodo’s head came up as we rode past him, but he made no move to follow. At least until we reached the end of the driveway. Then he started to trot to catch up.

  “He’s going to follow us, I think,” Rex said. “I wondered about that. He won’t want to stay there alone.”

  I shrugged. “Let him. He’s free to do what he wants. At least this way he doesn’t have a rider putting extra pressure on him.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Frodo did follow us. All afternoon and into the next day we had a constant companion. He stayed by the other horses when we camped for the night, and followed when we started out the next morning. Sometimes he hung back a bit to get some grass from the side of the road. Other times, he trotted to join the other horses.

  He didn’t say it, but I knew Rex was relieved to have him with us. Even after giving him up for me to ride, Rex felt a connection to Frodo. I knew he didn’t relish the idea of leaving him behind. We also knew the horse would alert us to any oddities on the road. From potential human interference to the approach of zombies, Frodo would freeze and aim himself toward the possible threat.

  “He seems to be keeping up pretty well,” Rex called over to me. “Maybe we should start trading off horses instead of always using the same two.”

  I eyed Frodo as he trotted toward us again. Upon closer inspection, it did seem as though he was hesitating on his back left leg. “Give it a day or two. If he’s still there, maybe his leg will be more normal again,” I suggested.

  “Have you sensed anything today?” Rex asked.

  I frowned, but shook my head. “Nothing.” We rode on for a couple minutes. “My range is less now that we’re separated from the others, but it feels weird that we haven’t run into anyone or anything for so long.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Rex said. “Not like we’d be able to win any fight we get into at this point.”

  I shrugged. “Guess it should be a positive in any case, really. Who actually wants to run into those things?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah. You’re right.”

  We rode a bit longer, then Rex stood up in his saddle. A frown crossed his face.

  “What is it?” I asked. I tried to see what he saw, and noticed a cloud of black smoke ahead of us. From what I could tell, it was at least a couple miles away.

  He sat down, the frown still on his face. “May be nothing,” he admitted. “But it looks like that smoke is coming from where we’re heading.”

  I shrugged. It wouldn’t be the first time we’d come across a fire. Some were caused by natural means, like a lightning strike. Others had been set by people. Whether it was maliciously set or accidental, we couldn’t always say. Although, there had been times it was pretty easy to tell. Some people would do anything to get what they wanted. Rex kept his hand near his gun. Always ready to spring to defend. We had to be prepared in case the fire had been one set on purpose. Especially if the people who set it came our way.

  As the sun began its slow decent, the smell of smoke became more apparent. My nose twitched. Burnt rubber. Not a pleasant smell. The horses pranced nervously as we approached the fire. I urged my horse on, but she kept her ears pricked forward. Her muscles were tense and I could tell Rex’s horse was having the same issue.

  A glance back showed Frodo still a bit behind us, but gamely following despite the fear of fire. Or maybe he didn’t have the same fear as the other two.

  By the time we reached the scene of the fire, the sun was nearly gone. The fire was mostly out, but smoke still rose from the burnt out RV.

  “Yikes,” Rex said with a low whistle. “Someone got burned.”

  “Hope not.” I shuddered. Burned corpses I could do without.

  Rex dismounted and prowled around the burned out husk of the RV. “There are bullet holes in the side and in the windshield,” he said. “Must be bandits wandering near here. Although,” he tapped the metal. “The fire is out, it’s just smoking a bit. Seems like this may have happened a while ago already.”

  “Get back on your horse,” I ordered. “There won’t be anything useful in there.”

  He waved a hand toward me, but peered in the windows. “I don’t see anyone. Maybe they got away?”

  “Or there wasn’t anyone to begin with, and someone just felt like burning a vehicle,” I suggested. “We need to get going.”

  He finally stepped away from the RV and went to retrieve his horse from the side of the road. “Sorry. I just figured we should try to find out if bandits are nearby.”

  “No problem. Let’s get moving. We have to find a place to camp for the night.”

  Once he was settled back on his horse, we rode alongside the RV. A mark on the side of the vehicle had me pulling to a stop almost immediately.

  “Rex!” I pointed. “Is it just me, or does that look like-”

  “One of Caleb’s birds?” he said, almost in awe. “It does. They’re ahead of us.”

  I wanted to smile about it, but it was hard to think positively when their vehicle was shot up and burned.

  “We need to keep moving,” I decided. “Hopefully they got away from whoever destroyed this thing. If they did, we should meet them at the guard’s headquarters.

  If not… well, I couldn’t think about that right now.

  From the grim look on Rex’s face, he had followed the same train of thought. Despite knowing they were no longer there, I found it hard to tear myself away from the RV. It was the last place we knew they were.

  Still, if we wanted to catch up, we had to go. I nudged my horse’s side to get her walking again. After a moment, I heard Rex do the same. It wasn’t easy to leave, but we were running out of time.

  “We have a long way to go yet, Rex. I hate leaving here without knowing for sure Jake and the others are okay, but we know everyone else is in trouble. For now, Jake and the others are going to have to fend for th
emselves.”

  His mouth twitched. “I know. I just hate it,” he said. “They were obviously attacked.”

  “No bodies,” I reminded him. “So they were either captured or got away, but they are alive.”

  Rex gave a snort. “Yeah. Alive. At least as of this attack.”

  I grinned at him. “They will be fine, Rex. They’re good at protecting themselves. And they have the dogs.”

  “Maybe. Probably,” he allowed.

  “We might even come across them on the road somewhere,” I said. “Without the RV they won’t be moving as fast. We could conceivably catch up to them.”

  The thought of reuniting with even some of our missing friends made me smile. I grinned back at Rex. “We need to push it for now. Get to a spot we can sleep, then get an early start tomorrow. Who knows? It could be the day we find some of our friends.”

  Turning away from Rex, I urged my horse to a faster gait. The grin slowly faded. Yes, we could find our friends. Or we could continue our trek toward the guard’s headquarters and never find them.

  The sun was down, only the last hints of light still in the sky when we finally found a place to stop. “Abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere,” I muttered. “That’s never a fun stop.”

  “We should stay behind the carwash,” Rex suggested. If it starts raining we can go in, but at least we’d be out of sight. Most people wouldn’t think to look outside the building for anyone hiding.

  Probably true. Either way, I was too tired to argue. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

  We dismounted and led the horses behind the carwash, which was lightly wooded. “We’ll have to use some water for the horses,” I said as we walked around the small building.

  “Nope,” Rex said with a smile. “They have a duck pond.”

  It wasn’t the cleanest water, but better than using all of our drinking water for the horses. A few minutes after we stopped, the horses nickered softly. They didn’t seem alarmed, but I still grabbed my sword and stood ready.

  “It’s Frodo,” Rex informed me.

  As he spoke, I heard the clip-clop of Frodo’s hooves on the pavement. The idea of such a loyal horse made me smile. “Crazy horse. Ah well. The more the merrier, right?”

  While I prepared a quick meal of cold canned food, Rex headed into the gas station to see if there were any supplies we might be able to use. By the time I grabbed the blankets from the backpacks and had them set out for our sleeping area, he’d gathered several bags of chips, a few bottles of soda, and quite a few bottles of water. Apparently the station was enough out of the way that it hadn’t been completely looted yet.

  “There’s a decent amount of stuff left in there,” he said when he came to eat. “But I don’t think we should weigh ourselves down any more than this. Without the trailer we don’t have quite as much space.”

  After we ate our main meal, we reorganized our supplies. Then, trusting the horses to alert us if anyone approached, I relaxed on the soft grass.

  Rex settled next to me. We both stared up at the stars silently for several minutes. The only sound was the horses chewing on the grass, and the occasional swish of their tails.

  “We’re not going to make in in time, are we?” Rex asked softly.

  Keeping my eyes on the sky I whispered. “I don’t know. Probably not.”

  He shifted, and I looked over to see him on his side facing me. I moved to mimic his posture. “Then we need a new plan. Being late isn’t an option.”

  “There are smaller guard stations nearby,” I offered. “I know you’ll probably say no, but…” I let my voice trail.

  Rex picked up my thought without a problem. “You think we should give ourselves up to them. That they’ll take us to the headquarters, and stop the countdown.”

  I shrugged. “I think so. If we can trust anything they say, anyway.”

  “Then we become prisoners ourselves. We wouldn’t really be rescuing anyone.”

  What he said was true. But we still had Jake and the others out here… somewhere, anyway. After leaving us behind, they might have assumed we were captured. If they were still okay, they would stay on the path to our friends. If we became prisoners, they would find us there along with the others.

  Rex reached over, and I let him take my hand in his, relishing the gentle contact.

  “We need to stick together, Z. Whatever the plan, I’m with you. Right now, we’re all we have.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Rex and I started out early the next morning. As we finished getting the horses tacked up, the horizon lit up in reds and oranges. Despite the beautiful sunrise, my heart felt heavy. Our plans weighed on my mind, and I hated what we might have to do. Although, I still had doubts whether it was the right thing to do.

  Turning ourselves over to the guards would stop the countdown, and potentially save our friends. Even if we managed to get to the headquarters on time, there was no guarantee we’d get the others out. Of course, we had no way to know if they would keep their word and release our friends either.

  We still planned to keep our eyes open for any sign of Jake and the others. If we managed to catch up, we would continue with our original plan to rescue our friends. But if we couldn’t find them, we would continue to the guard station, turn ourselves in, and hope they would honor their promise to not harm our other friends.

  Despite knowing the guards were not always kind, I hoped they hadn’t harmed anyone. None of those they’d captured were even eighteen. Simply kids pushed into a situation that forced them to grow up fast. Treated as prisoners by adults who, by all rights, should protect them. Not use them as bargaining chips and threaten their lives in order to get at another child. Even if that other child was the one they turned into Patient Zero of their stupid outbreak.

  It was near midday when Rex pulled to a stop and, without a word, dismounted and ran to the side of the road.

  “Rex? What…?”

  When I saw what he’d noticed, I practically jumped down from the horse to see. “They’re okay,” I breathed out.

  “Yeah. They’re okay,” Rex repeated, a grin crossing his face as he touched the marking left by our friends. “They’re okay, and still heading in this direction. We may not be able to catch them, but if we keep to this path…”

  I finished his thought. “We’ll find them at the end.”

  It would mean continuing on with the risk of getting there too late to rescue the others. But… It would also mean not allowing ourselves to be taken prisoner. Both options had their risks.

  Rex huffed. He avoided my eyes when he said, “Zero… I don’t think we should follow our plan. We should try to go faster in order to catch up to the others.”

  I grinned. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. Now that we know Jake and the others got away after the RV fire, it makes more sense. With Shanti, Alex, Lia, and Mike, we can take control of the zombies and utilize them in our rescue attempt. I still don’t know how Brent was able to take over control on his own, but now that I’m expecting it, I should be able to counter whatever he does.”

  Rex brightened as we walked back to the horses. “So, you think you can keep him from taking control?”

  “Maybe?” I said while I swung myself back up onto the saddle. “Dunno. It isn’t necessarily as simple as that. If his connection isn’t too strong, I’m hoping I can send a stronger impulse through the web. It could be enough to allow me to influence them more than he can.”

  Another thought occurred, and I added. “I may also be able to add his connection to mine, the same way I do with the others. With all our strength combined, there’s no way he stays in control.”

  We got the horses moving again, and Rex smiled. “Gotta admit, even if we don’t catch up with Jake, Shanti, and the others, I like this idea better. The one where we let ourselves get caught wasn’t great.”

  I smiled. “Me too.” My smile was short lived, once I remembered what we were still walking into. “I wonder if the people who experi
mented on me will be there. Maybe we’d be able to find a way to get them to make a cure.”

  Rex snorted. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, Z. I think we should concentrate on rescuing our friends. Then we can worry about finding a way to save the world.”

  I shook my head. “You’re right. Just… I dunno, keep it in your mind. We need to think long term goals, too.”

  After my willingness to use my tears on people only a few days earlier, I needed to believe there could be a cure. The so-called doctors…scientists…researchers—whatever people wanted to call them—had made me into a weapon of mass destruction. A position I’d been in for over a year, and I was done. If we had to go to war with them over it, we would.

  Scrapping the idea of working from the inside as prisoners was likely for the best. I now hoped we could push faster so we could catch up to Jake and the others before we reached our goal. Planning would be much simpler if we had everyone around.

  Hardly realizing what I was doing, I found myself pulling ahead of Rex. He clicked to his horse and caught up to us quickly. The horses were in good shape, so I figured they could handle a faster gait for a while. Frodo nickered as we moved away from him, and a glance back showed him running to catch up.

  The horse had either become super loyal in only a couple days, or he had issues with being alone. Either way, I couldn’t stand the idea of leaving him behind, so I eased back just enough so he could keep up.

  “Good boy, Frodo, you can stay with us, bud,” I said as he ran up alongside me and my horse. Maybe not forever, but at least until we could leave him and the other horses together. I would definitely feel less guilty leaving him behind with friends. Horses tended to watch out for each other.

  Rex looked at me and smirked. “Softie,” he said.

  I glared, but relented. “Guilty. He’s grown on me.”

  For the next several miles we didn’t talk much. I pointed out the next spot where Caleb had left a mark, and saw signs of where they must have stopped for a break. A piece of bandage material had been left behind. We didn’t stop at either place, instead opting to keep moving as long as the horses were willing.