The Living Dead Boy (Book 3): Journey Across Zombie Texas

by Rhiannon Frater

  Sam took the phone with shaking fingers. “I’ll be super careful.”

  “Good. Now I need to call Daisy so she can come get you kids. I’ll be here working on the fence.”

  “We can just stay inside. We won’t cause trouble,” Josh said swiftly.

  “Well, it’s better if you go to the Rec Center. It’ll be fine.” Nathan moved away and claimed his walkie-talkie from the counter before walking down the hallway.

  “I got the phone!” Sam exclaimed, but kept his voice down. “My dad always gives me what I want. He loves me.” He handed it over to Corina, who quickly put it into her always present tote bag. “Now you can call your dad, Josh.”

  Josh shot Corina a sharp look. Had she lied to Sam?

  No one corrected Sam, which made Josh even more suspicious of what Corina had said.

  “Why are they making us go to the Rec Center?” Danny wondered aloud.

  “Something is up,” Corina whispered.

  “Maybe they think we’re going to run away,” Troy suggested.

  Dulce poked Sam. “What you say?”

  “Nothing! I got the phone like Corina told me to so Josh can call his dad to come get him,” Sam said, rubbing his arm.

  Dulce prodded him with her finger again. “What you say?”

  Frowning, Sam mumbled something so low no one could hear.

  “What was that?” Corina demanded.

  Dulce jabbed Sam again super hard. “What you say?”

  Sighing, Sam whispered, “I talked in my sleep. Okay? My dad woke me up because he said I was begging Josh not to leave.”

  All the kids let out noises of exasperation and Troy flung up his hands. “Really, Sam. Really?”

  “I told him it was just a dream, then I went to sleep with you guys.” Sam thrust out his chin, folding his arms across his chest.

  “So he doesn’t trust us now.” Danny shook his head with annoyance. “Good job, dude.”

  “I can’t help it if I was asleep,” Sam protested.

  Nathan reappeared, and the kids fell silent. Sam’s dad studied the blank expressions on the kids’ faces and looked uneasy. “Okay, kids, Daisy is almost here. Everyone done eating? Put your plates in the sink.”

  Corina heaved the tote bag over one shoulder, and picked up her plate.

  “Hey, sweetie, you can leave that here,” Nathan said to her.

  “I can’t. It’s a girl thing,” Corina answered, opening the bag wide enough to flash the box of Kotex.

  Blushing almost as deeply as his son, Nathan said, “Oh, sorry. Right. Okay. No problem.”

  Dulce rolled her eyes. “Boys are so dumb.”

  Once they were done putting their plates in the sink, Nathan herded them to the door. “Remember: if Chad starts anything, you tell the guards immediately. I’ll pick you up after we’re done with the barricades. Sam, don’t lose my phone, and be careful with it. I’m trusting you with it.” He checked the outside through the peephole. “Daisy is here.”

  Josh followed Nathan out the door with the other kids. The sky was overcast and the air crisp. Nearby people were hammering as they worked on building a fence across the end of the street.

  “That’s smarter,” Josh muttered.

  The big black SUV waited for them with Daisy behind the wheel. She smiled and waved at them, but Josh saw the tension around her mouth.

  He had a bad feeling all the adults were going to be watching them.

  It was going to be much harder to escape now.

  Chapter 16

  “So... did you kids have a good breakfast?” Daisy asked after the Zombie Hunters were secure in the big SUV.

  “My dad makes the best pancakes,” Sam declared.

  The blonde boy was in the passenger seat, which Josh had wrangled on purpose. Since Josh was the leader, he knew he’d be the one under suspicion if Nathan had taken Sam’s ramblings seriously. He didn’t want to come under Daisy’s scrutiny.

  As the SUV pulled away from the curb, Josh craned his head to observe the new wall being built. He was glad the adults were getting smarter about defenses, but he wasn’t too sure how a plywood fence would hold up against zombies.

  Daisy waved to Nathan before he started toward the new barrier. “Yeah, Nathan does make the best pancakes. Did you sleep okay, Sam? I saw you went in to be with the other boys.”

  Troy leaned forward and tilted his head with his hand so he could mouth weak link to Josh. Beyond Troy, Corina looked worried as she chewed on her bottom lip. Dulce and Danny were in the very back seat, but he could feel their nervousness. Josh realized he’d made a mistake. He should have sat in the front seat.

  “Yeah. It was okay. My dad got up a lot, so I decided to sleep with the rest of the Zombie Hunters. Except for the girls.”

  “Your dad said you were having a nightmare,” Daisy said casually.

  “Uh huh.”

  “About what?”

  Josh thought he caught Daisy looking at him through the rearview mirror. He ignored her and continued to watch the terrain outside the window. He was trying to figure out exactly where they were in town, and memorize landmarks.

  “Uh. Stuff.” Sam sounded nervous.

  “Worried about your friends?”

  “Josh was going to die,” Sam said abruptly. “He was going to stay in his house with all the zombies and not come with us to the bus.”

  “Oh? What do you mean?”

  “Josh left us in the treehouse and went into his house to get all the zombies in the yard to follow him so we could get away. He was going to die in there! I told him not to do it, but he did. And then Corina saved him. She rode in on a motorcycle and shot a zombie and everything. Even though she’s a girl, she’s cool.”

  Corina leaned forward to thump Sam on the arm. “Excuse you!”

  “It was a compliment! You’re cool for a girl!”

  Dulce leaned over the middle seat and smacked Sam, too.

  “Why are you girls being mean to me?”

  “Maybe because you have yet to realize that girls are much cooler than boys,” Daisy said with a grin.

  Sam glanced into the backseat and frowned at Corina. “I didn’t mean it bad.”

  “Then don’t say it all!” Corina returned his frown.

  “So that’s what you were dreaming about?” Daisy was definitely interrogating Sam.

  “Yeah,” Sam said, but with a whole lot of guilt in his voice. He was a horrible liar.

  “Well, your friends are all alive and safe. You made it here, and now we’re going to take care of you.” Her words were heavy with meaning.

  Josh deliberately didn’t look at his friends, but kept his eye on the area around him.

  When they arrived at the Rec Center, Josh wasn’t too impressed. There were some buses parked in the front facing the road—for a quick escape he supposed. There was a fence around the entire complex and guards walked along the inside of the chain-link barrier. To Josh’s surprise, there were adults and children milling around in a picnic and play area. The landscaping wasn’t too fancy, with islands of trees and flowers dotting the open space. It would be easy to see if zombies or infected people approached the fence. Still, Josh wondered at the decision to let people outside.

  Sandbags were piled up near the front doors and the people were talking behind them with rifles slung over their shoulders. The windows were secured with plywood held in place by wood poles that were wedged deep into the ground. Josh exchanged a quick look at Troy.

  “Get enough zombies, and they can knock that free,” Troy whispered.

  It was the type of setup that would have sent Arturo on a long rant. Josh missed his best friend. Arturo would have had his back in all his plans. Sadly, Roger wouldn’t have fared well at all in this world. Josh wasn’t even sure if Troy’s adopted brother would have made it this far. After the first zombie appeared, Roger had not been the same kid he played with every day. Roger had denied everything that was happening around him, and had died when he’d tried to fi
nd his mother.

  Daisy ushered them past the barricade through a maze of sandbags and tires to the front door. The entrance was glass and people had piled furniture up against the big windows on the inside. The interior was stuffy and a fan whirred near a counter when they entered. The lobby was large and had yet another barricade set up near double doors that opened to the areas beyond. There were quite a few men and women standing around in hunting gear. Daisy motioned the kids over to where a much older woman was working on a laptop computer behind the counter. She, too, was dressed in camouflage, and Josh took note of the shotgun she had resting against her chair.

  “Mabelynn, I’m leaving these kids off for a few hours while Nathan helps my brothers and dad with the fences,” Daisy said.

  The older woman peered over the counter at the kids with bloodshot blue eyes. She didn’t look like she’d slept much. “Are they in the system?”

  “Yeah. I had them entered in the database yesterday. Only let them leave with me or Nathan, okay?”

  “You’ve got it, Daisy,” Mabelynn answered.

  Daisy once again herded the kids forward. The Rec Center was basic, with a gym that could double as a dance hall. There was a cafeteria area, where people sat around reading, talking, or playing board games. More than a few were staring at their smartphones or tablets and there was a table covered in devices that were plugged into an electrical strip to recharge. Cots, sleeping bags, and air mattresses covered the floor. A few people were trying to sleep. The room smelled like sweaty people.

  Setting her hands on her hips, Daisy swung about to face the Zombie Hunters. “They’ll serve lunch around noon. Until then, you can play outside, or hang out where those tables are. There’s games and stuff. Just wait for us until we come get you. This is only for today. Nathan and I are trying to work out a schedule where one of us will always be with you guys.”

  Josh nodded, hiding his annoyance at their distrust.

  Sam stared at his feet. “Okay.”

  “Nathan said he gave you his phone. You can’t call out on it, but you can see all the updates being sent out. It’s dangerous out there. Very dangerous. It’s good that you’re here in town. You’ll see that when you look at the updates.”

  Daisy couldn’t be more obvious in her message.

  “We’re good,” Josh assured her.

  “Are we?” She gave him a long look.

  “Yeah. Totally,” Josh replied, trying to look innocent.

  “Good. Because I don’t want you trying to run off and get to your dad on some foolhardy trip across zombie Texas.” She obviously tried to make it sound like a joke, but the words came out sounding more serious than she probably intended.

  “We’re fine,” Corina assured her. “Really.”

  “Okay. Good. I’ll see you later.” Daisy looked at each one of them with her stern law enforcement face, then walked over to one of the guards in the room. She spoke to him for a minute or so, then departed.

  Troy waited until Daisy was gone before turning to Sam. “Seriously, I can’t believe you narced on us in your sleep!”

  Sam reddened. “Not on purpose!”

  “They’re going to be watching us all the time now.” Corina sighed, and shook her head with exasperation.

  “Let me see the phone,” Josh said.

  “Are you going to call your dad?” Sam asked. “So he can get you?”

  “Weren’t you listening? The phones don’t work,” Danny replied.

  “But Corina said Josh knew how to…” Sam’s voice faded out. “Oh. You lied. You’re really going to leave.”

  Corina fished it out of her bag and handed it over to Josh. “I didn’t want you to tell your dad why you wanted the phone.”

  “But I didn’t tell him anything. I promised I wouldn’t, and I didn’t.”

  “We got the phone. That’s all that matters,” Josh said.

  “Yeah, because they want it to scare us into not leaving.” Troy rolled his eyes.

  The other kids huddled around as Josh activated the screen.

  Josh quickly scrolled through the updates. “Okay, this message from four hours ago said the new zombie tracking app is going to be installed soon. So that’s good.” Josh tapped the map and watched it locate their position. “We’re only two hours from San Angelo!”

  “Seriously?” Corina huddled closer.

  There were three evacuation routes in the vicinity highlighted on the map in a bright red line.

  “If we’re that close, why can’t your dad come get us?” Troy asked.

  “They have both lanes going toward San Angelo,” Josh answered. “There’s no outgoing traffic.”

  “This is good, dude. We’re not that far away. Traffic will be bad, but we can make it,” Danny said with excitement.

  Corina touched the screen and altered the results. “Two days walking.”

  “So we need to get a car,” Troy said.

  “How?” Dulce asked pointedly, looking around the room. There were guards at every doorway.

  “Let’s go outside,” Josh decided. “See what we can scope out.”

  “Are you really going to go?” Sam asked, breathing heavily. “For real?”

  “I have to go,” Josh answered. “My dad and my brother are all the family I have left.”

  “But... but… we’re a family now, right?” Sam was definitely on the verge of tears.

  “Sam, we’ll always be family,” Corina promised.

  “But not together. Like when my mom left.” Hanging his head, Sam trudged toward the doors that led to the outside picnic area and playground.

  “Man, that’s sad,” Danny muttered.

  “We’re his only friends. What’s a guy to do?” Troy shrugged, and followed.

  Josh fell into step behind his friends. He felt bad for Sam, but he didn’t feel he had a choice other than to try to make it to his dad. When he’d been separated from him at the truck stop, his dad’s expression had made it clear that he believed that Josh could find his way to San Angelo.

  Just as Sam reached the outside doors, Chad darted out from a group of people to grab his arm and drag him through the exit.

  “Oh, great,” Corina muttered.

  “Oh, there’s stupid,” Dulce exclaimed. “Not so good.”

  Josh and the other kids immediately sprinted after them.

  Chapter 17

  The exit was crowded with people moving through the doors. Josh was jostled about by the adults bringing their young kids back inside. To his annoyance, several mothers in deep conversation hesitated on the doorstep to chat, blocking the Zombie Hunters’ way.

  Already outside, Chad dragged Sam toward the play area. Yanking him close, Chad leaned down to whisper in Sam’s ear. Whatever he said turned Sam’s face a bright red.

  “We need to rescue Sam!” Troy grumbled, trying to wedge through the press of bodies.

  “Hey, don’t push my child,” a woman scolded him.

  “Stop blocking the way!” Troy yelled back.

  “People, get away from the door. You’re either in or out,” the guard in a red plaid hunting vest said, his craggy face displeased.

  The women ignored him and continued their conversation.

  Josh found a small gap in the group to squeeze through. Annoyed with the adults, he broke free and raced after Chad and Sam.

  “What did you tell them, fatty?” Chad demanded, shaking Sam.

  “That you’re a turd!” Sam cried out, tears flowing down his red cheeks.

  “Leave him alone, Chad!”

  The teenager whipped around to face Josh. Chad’s face was even more colorful than the day before. His eye was swollen to the size of an egg and there were stitches where Josh had smacked him with the skillet. The cuts and scrapes on his scrawny limbs had an angry red tinge to them. If Josh didn’t know better, he’d feel sorry for the teenager. Instead, since he knew exactly what Chad was capable of, he felt some satisfaction at his battered condition. Chad thought they were a bunch of du
mb kids he could shove around and abuse. Instead, he’d found out that they were tougher than they looked, and more than willing to stand their ground.

  The rest of the Zombie Hunters arrived to stand with Josh.

  “Oh, it’s the know-it-all punk,” Chad snarled. “And his loser friends.” He faked lunging toward the Zombie Hunters.

  Josh hated that they all flinched, including him.

  Chad’s mocking laughter set Josh’s nerves on edge.

  “What a bunch of losers! Bunch of babies scared of everything.”

  “We kicked your butt, dude!” Danny shouted.

  “No, I kicked your butt,” Chad snarled. “Just like I’m going to kick fatty’s.”

  “Leave Sam alone!’ Troy ordered.

  “Fatty here got me in big trouble with his dad by saying a bunch of lies about me,” Chad said, jerking Sam around. “His dad threatened to lock me up in jail all because of fatty’s lies!”

  “Sam didn’t lie,” Josh retorted. “And you know it!”

  “Yeah, turd for brains, you nearly got us killed yesterday,” Troy said, folding his arms across his chest and glaring.

  “I was trying to save you! But you’re such stupid little babies, you wouldn’t listen to me!”

  “Dude, this is an old conversation. We’ve been here. Done that. Just leave us alone.” Danny grabbed Sam’s other arm. “C’mon, Sam.”

  “No, we’re not done here!” Chad tugged on Sam, but Dulce shoved him back and broke his hold.

  Chad lost his balance and fell.

  “We done. You done. Go away,” Dulce ordered, then added as an afterthought, “Stupid boy.”

  Chad got to his feet and charged her, but stopped inches short, breathing heavily. Glaring down into her face, he said, “I don’t have a problem hitting a girl.”

  “Yeah, we know,” Corina said, finally speaking up. “Back down.”

  Dulce didn’t break eye contact with him. At her sides, her hands were clenched. “You’re stupid.”