by Lake, D. K.
Blood and Bullets
The Zombie Zovels
Book 3
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of a reviewer in brief quotations.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover image by https://www.bigstockphoto.com
Copyright © 2018 by D.K. Lake
Prologue
- Drew -
"Stop the car." I murmured.
I was still staring out the window at the passing trees, not really paying attention to anything.
Evan didn't hear me and carried on driving, swerving to miss a deadbie that was crawling across the road. I rubbed my eyes and pulled myself from my daze and leaned into the front to turn the volume on the stereo down. Lena had grabbed a handful of CDs for the road trip from the music store inside the shopping mall, and Evan had let her have the first choice and she was currently singing at the top of her lungs to OneRepublic, Wherever I Go.
The song was so not helping my state of mind.
Fuck.
It took Lena a moment to realize the music was off before she stopped singing and turned to glare at me.
"What the...? Drew! I was listening to that!"
"Surprised you could hear it over all that screeching you call singing." Dan muttered from the passenger seat in front.
I tried not to smirk, but he had a point. Lena was the sweetest thing but she couldn't sing for shit.
She tried to reach over my shoulder to reach the volume button but I quickly leaned forward and pressed the eject button.
"Drew?!" You put that CD back right now!" Lena squealed, trying to squeeze past me to get to the radio but I gently pushed her away and she fell back into the seat.
"Stop the car!" I said, louder this time, leaning into the front so Evan could hear me.
"What? Why?" Evan said, glancing over his shoulder at me.
"Just stop the fucking car already!" I yelled.
I needed to get out of here. I needed air. I needed to be moving on foot. I couldn't think trapped inside this tin box.
"All right, all right!" Evan said, pressing his foot on the brakes, and the car came to a sudden stop, sending Lena into the seat in front.
"Oww! Why are we stopping?" Lena moaned, rubbing her head.
"Why aren't you wearing your seatbelt?" Evan asked in an annoyed tone, glancing back at her.
I already had the door open before the car had even stopped.
"Drew!" Evan yelled once he realized I had vacated the car.
I started walking back along the road, crossbow in hand, that and the pocket watch in my pocket and the clothes on my back were all I owned and all I really needed. I had left my pocket knife with Alex. I still couldn't decide if I'd done it deliberately or not. When we pulled up and I saw her with her boyfriend, I knew I wouldn't be able to speak to her. The thought of saying goodbye had me all choked up inside, and the last thing I wanted was to let Alex and her boyfriend see me tear up like some pussy.
That's why I ignored her.
And it was eating at me.
I didn't get to say goodbye.
Twenty minutes later and I still couldn't get that look she gave me out of my head. And the worst part was, I knew I'd never see her again.
Dammit. What was wrong with me?
What. The. Fuck. Am. I. Doing?!
"Drew! Slow down!" Lena called, chasing after me along the edge of the road.
Someone grabbed my arm and yanked me back a step.
"What the fuck, man?" Evan said angrily. "You don't just tell me to stop the fucking car then jump out without warning. What is going on with you? You've been as quiet as a fucking mouse since we left."
Lena jogged to a stop beside Evan and I could see Dan had ventured out of the car and was looking from left to right, like an owl on crack.
"I can't go with you guys. I can't go back to Dodge Lake. Not right now, anyway."
Evan scratched his head with the crowbar he was holding and said, "Why the fuck not?"
I swallowed thickly and took my time to answer, looking across the road at the dense trees.
"I promised Alex I'd stay with her." I finally replied.
"That girl?" Evan frowned.
That girl? Even my best friend couldn't understand the connection between Alex and me. And neither could I.
"You like her?" Lena said, raising an eyebrow at me with a slight smile on her face.
I didn't say anything and looked back at the car to make sure Dan was ok and not being eaten by a zombie or anything like that. He wasn't good when it came to combat, he was more of a run-and-hide type of person.
Actually, that's probably the only reason why the guy was still alive.
"Fuck's sake. The first girl you fall for since your ex and she's a dying girl." Evan moved closer to me and rested his hands on my shoulders, looking me dead in the eyes.
"You need to come home, your sister needs you. We need you!" Evan said honestly.
"I...I can't." I removed his hands and moved back a step.
"You can't? I don't get it, what's so special about this girl?"
Good question. Even I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get her out of my head. What was that about? Was it because I felt sorry for her? I tried to remember the first moment I realized I cared about this girl. I mean, really cared about her, and I kept thinking back to the time when we were in the desert and she got attacked by a deadbie by the water. The weird feeling I got, how my breathing sped up, and how fast my heart pounded, it was so loud I could hear it in my ears. I forgot about everything else, it all dissolved into the background, and I ran as fast as I could to get to her.
I wasn't sure what the feeling was but when I got to her and she was ok, I felt better. I was scared of losing her. The idea of anything or anyone hurting her frightened me.
And now I had left her to die or be cured, but what are the odds of that happening?
My heart was pounding again and my chest hurt.
"Drew, are you ok?" Lena asked softly, touching my arm.
I scrubbed my fingers through my hair, trying to catch my breath.
"Drew?"
"I-I have to go back. I need...I need to go back."
I started walking...in the wrong direction.
Fuck.
I turned around and found Lena and Evan both watching me with concerned eyes.
"I don't understand, what's wrong with him?" Evan said, talking to Lena before he walked past her and toward an approaching deadbie and started beating the crap out of it.
Another one appeared from out of the trees and I shot it in the head on reflex. Killing them came like second nature to me, I didn't have to think about it. I just did it, but these feelings I kept getting when I thought of Alex, they were messing with my head.
Lena came over to me and stood in front of me.
"Drew, talk to me."
"I have to go back."
"Because of her?" Evan stepped over the deadbie and walked back to us with a little more red on his t-shirt.
"She's just some random girl?" he said, confused.
"No. She's different."
"Yes. She's dying! And she'll soon be one of them." Evan pointed to the deadbie he had just killed with the bloody crowbar.
"I have to go back. I need to go back."
"No! What you need to do is come home with us." Evan said firmly.
"I promised Alex I would stay with her. I need to stay."
"What, until she turns?" Evan stomped away and started pacing.
"Too late now, she's already with the scientist guy. He's probably cut pieces off of her and stuck needles in her eyes." Dan muttered, edging closer but still keeping his distance.
I took a step in his direction but Lena quickly jumped in front of me to stop me from killing him.
"Ohmigosh, Dan!" Lena hissed, giving him a pointed look. "That's really not helping." she added and waved her hand at him and shooed him back to the car.
"Do you think he's right?" I asked, looking at her.
If anyone was going to understand why I wanted to go back it would be Lena 'cause she was a girl and they had feelings and shit, right?
"No, he's Lane's brother. I don't think Lane would send Alex to a butcher." Lena reassured me, shaking her head at Dan.
"So that's it, you're going to drop us for some girl?" Evan said angrily.
"She's not..." I stopped talking because I wasn't really sure what Alex was to me or what she had done to me to make me feel this way.
I felt like an idiot because I knew she felt nothing for me. I was just a nobody to her.
She was with Lane.
End of story.
So why couldn't I move on?
"You weren't with her for very long, and you're telling me in that short space of time you bonded with this girl? What did you do, take her out for dinner?" Evan waved his crowbar in the air and continued to pace back and forth.
"A few more days and she'd probably eat you off the menu." Dan muttered having shuffled closer, trying to eavesdrop.
"I'm seriously going to hurt him-" I started but Lena stopped me.
"You're not helping. Go and get in the car!" Lena ordered Dan away and he muttered something about me ending up as fast food and headed back to the car.
Evan turned to me and nudged Lena aside and grabbed my face in his hands to get me to look at him.
Evan had always been like a little brother to me and a best friend all rolled into one. I was the one always looking out for him, it was strange to see him so concerned about me for a change.
"I don't know what happened, she...we...I can't explain it. I just know I can't leave her. I-I like her."
Saying that I liked her sounded so lame, but I was pretty sure I liked this girl. A lot.
"You like her?" Evan said trying to figure it out.
And don't even get me started on the weird beach dream I had when I was taking a nap back at the shopping mall which involved Alex and some exotic beach and there was kissing involved, a lot of kissing.
Evan groaned and shook his head.
"So that's it, you like her. You're going to leave us for some girl you like? I mean, I like a good burger, but that doesn't mean I'm going to run off and leave you guys to find myself a cow 'cause I know it's pointless, they're all dead or dying."
"Evan, that is the worst comparison, ever." Lena scrunched up her pretty little face.
"All right, I care about this girl, a lot more than I should, and I don't know why. I don't know what happened, but I can't leave her. I would regret it forever. I have to go back and see this through."
Evan let out a deep breath and stepped back.
"Okay, fine, so you're leaving us to go and wait for this girl to die and then you're going to come straight back home, right?" Evan looked at me for confirmation.
I just nodded. I had no idea what I was going to do. I suddenly felt lost...without Alex.
I felt like Fate was toying with me, throwing Alex in my path only to find out she was infected and had a boyfriend, and both totally sucked. I was so pissed and angry. The memory of that night at the stupid fairground, the one Ellie made me go to where I met that strange girl there and the strange things she told me...‘when the dead walk, you shall find the girl that holds your heart, and she will wear the moon’. All those things kept swirling through my head, but it was such a blur now I couldn't even figure out if any of it was real or not or if I was just going mad.
"Well, do you want us to drive you back?" Lena asked, breaking my thoughts.
"No, I'm good. I'll use my legs to get back." I replied, and then I said goodbye to my friends.
Chapter 1
My eyelids felt heavy and my head was pounding. I slowly opened my eyes only to be met by a blinding light above me. Was I dead?
I squinted and turned my head away from the fluorescent light. Ugh.
I tried to sit up but my head started to spin so I collapsed back onto whatever bed I was lying on.
I felt dizzy, sick and what felt like the worst hangover ever. I felt terrible.
Correction; I felt like shit.
I saw a white blur to my right and my eyes zoned in on a teenage girl. Long red hair, skinny frame, tall, pasty white, freckled body and face. And she was watching me with a curious look on her face.
She edged closer, looking at me like I was some kind of lab rat. The last thing I remembered was Ross giving my a bumpy ride on a trolley, taking me down to see Nick, and then I blacked out in the hallway.
That was it. There was nothing after that. Why couldn't I remember anything after that?
"What the fu..." I slurred, even my own words hurt my pounding head.
I tried to sit up but couldn't, and when I looked down I realized my wrists were in restraints and I was lying on a bed dressed in a medical gown.
WTF? I really was a lab rat.
"What the shit is this?!" I demanded.
My eyes darted to the girl again but she just stared at me, frozen on the spot.
"What are you, mute? Why am I tied to a bed?" I asked.
I didn't get a reply because the girl shot out of the room and all I saw was the back of her white dress as she disappeared out the door. I jiggled the restraints but they weren't budging.
"Hey! Get back here!" I yelled but regretted it after and fell back onto the pillow, my head thumping like someone was smashing it against a wall.
I glanced around the room, taking note of my surroundings, a miniature sink, toilet, a small desk and chair, the walls were gray and uninviting, and the floor was bare. Where was I? This room looked like the inside of a prison cell.
There was only one door, in and out, and next to it there was a mirror shaped like a window and I saw the state I was in.
Greasy, mattered hair, my pale face looked gaunt and I had bags under my eyes. I looked horrible.
As I was coming out of my sleepy state I noticed tubes, tubes everywhere, I was on a drip, and I was hooked up in other areas.
Oh, so gross.
"Hey, girl!" I shouted. "Get back in here and untie me. NOW!!"
Ok, so I was getting annoyed and borderline aggressive.
I mean, who wouldn't be? You wake up strapped to a bed with multiple tubes plugged into your body and you're not wearing the same clothes you had on the last time you remember.
I heard voices in the corridor and stopped fighting with the restraints, and strained my ears to hear what was being said.
"I told you to stay out of her room, we don't know what state she'll be in when she wakes up." said a male voice. American, but I didn’t recognize it, though.
"She's not a zombie. Zombies don't swear and yell. She's pissed, though. I told you not to tie her up." said a girl, maybe the same girl.
So she speaks.
"I had to make sure, it was for safety reasons." the male responded.
"Hello! Can I get some help in here?" I called.
A tall figure appeared in the doorway, colored skin, dark hair combed over to one side, thick black glasses, cleanly shaved, and he was wearing a pale blue cotton shirt rolled up to the elbows with cream pants and smart shoes.
He looked as though he was
off to a casual dinner party.
"Wh-who are you?" I asked as the stranger cautiously approached the bed.
"Hi, Alex. I'm Nick."
"Riiiight."
Was he joking?
"You don't sound so sure." He smiled, pulling out a pen or something from his top pocket.
"Nick? As in Nick Walker, Lane's brother?"
"That's the one."
He stepped closer and flashed a light into each of my eyes with the pen he had removed from his pocket.
"You can't be Nick. Where is the real Nick?" I demanded.
Impostor Nick stepped back and held my wrist to take my pulse.
"I can assure you, I am the only Nick Walker around here."
"But you're... you're..." I tried to find the right words.
"Asian." he finished for me.
"Not what I was expecting."
"Ah...Lane didn't tell you, then?"
"No. He forgot to mention that you are...you know."
"The Walkers adopted me when I was three. My mother used to work for them, cleaning and cooking meals, but she was struggling and couldn't pay the bills, and she never really wanted me in the first place. I was an inconvenience. My adopted mom, Lane's mom, well, she thought she couldn't have children so she offered to adopt me and my mom jumped at the chance. Then, later on, Mom miraculously fell pregnant with Lane, and I was really excited because I always wanted a little brother."
"Wow...I did not know any of that."
What else hadn't Lane told me? I thought he might have mentioned this.
Nick smiled. I jiggled the restraints again to get his attention.
"Oh, right." he said, reaching for the restraints and undoing my wrists.
"What's with the cuffs anyway?" I asked as I sat up and rubbed my wrists.
"It was just a precaution, in case you turned."
Wait...I didn't turn, does that mean...?
"So I'm cured?" I said, confused.
Cured? Was that even possible?
"It was a close call, you were near to transition, but I gave you the vaccine anyway, I didn't hold out much hope. I've never tried it on anyone so far gone. But, somehow you survived. The first few days were touch and go but you're a tough girl. Lane said you were a fighter."