I swallowed hard as I crawled over the seats to climb out, trying to make a quiet escape.
“The others will be here any minute to see what the holdup is,” one of the men argued. “We’ve gotta get rid of them and make it look good.”
At that point, I knew the men were not going to leave us alive, and that meant I was going to have to fight. I was ready to face all of them if I had to. I’d cared about the vials before, but now I just cared about getting away with our lives.
“Girls, just calm down,” Larry said, looking right at Jackie. “A promise is a promise, and we’ll let your little fellas go.”
“Oh, thank you, Larry. I knew you’d—”
Larry held his hand up to silence my girlfriend. “Okay, Ed, let ‘em go…right into the river!”
The girls screamed and begged them again to stop, to no avail. The men rammed into us one final time and with a screeching groan, we flipped once and then plunged into the raging waters below.
Chapter 2
Stuck in the SUV, Nick and I were swept downstream, at the mercy of the current. Water sloshed around my feet, and I gulped hard as I looked around for any overlooked weapons.
“They didn’t get all the guns,” Nick said. “We need to find them if we’re gonna survive out here.”
I glanced out the back window and gaped in horror as the men threw flailing bodies off the bridge. My stomach clenched. “Nick, they’re throwing people off!”
“What!? Do you see Val?” he shouted, desperately searching the flooded floorboards for any kind of weapon, waterlogged or otherwise.
“I-I can’t tell.”
“At least she can swim,” he said, “and so can the other girls.”
“If Val and the girls weren’t thrown off the bridge, I’m sure they’ll get away and meet us at the lab.”
“Where are those extra guns?” my brother shouted.
“I don’t know. I don’t see any.”
He sighed as he felt around on the floor. “Forget it. If we don’t get outta here now, it’s gonna be our coffin. C’mon!”
The vehicle slowly sank, filling up with cold water faster than I thought possible. My pulse shot into overdrive, and it became difficult to breathe. I remembered that the first trick to surviving such an incident was to open the door. If we waited too long, the pressure differential would make that impossible. I tried the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge, even when I shoved it hard with my shoulder, sending pain coursing through me. My heart raced, but I knew I needed to stay calm and focused and keep my head straight. I knew panic would only make things worse, but it was hard not to panic when gallons of water were gushing in, already up to my knees.
What about the power windows? I wondered. Will they still work? In an episode of Mythbusters, I’d seen that automatic windows don’t immediately short circuit underwater. I hoped that was the truth; our only other choice would be to smash our way out, and as strong as we were, neither one of us were Houdini or the Incredible Hulk.
Nick must have had the same idea, because he somehow managed to get his window to work and rolled it down. “C’mon!”
I followed him out the window as the deadly, cold water pounded against me. In seconds, the current swept me downstream. The roar of the river echoed loudly in my ears, even drowning out the sound of my own breathing. I gasped, almost inhaling a mouthful of water. I finally managed to turn over on my back, and I floated with my legs straight out, positioning myself to absorb the impact of debris or rocks or anything else that might be in my way. I didn’t want to be eaten by a zombie, and getting knocked unconscious during my little impromptu, raft-less white-water rafting trip would have made that a sure thing. I had no intention of drowning either, so I refused to let myself get pinned between any obstacles or to be pulled under and trapped by the underwater vegetation.
Tumbling, cold river water gushed into my mouth, pulling me under the surface. I fought the sensation to breathe, even though my lungs were on fire and my whole body was screaming for oxygen. With deliberate, long pushes of my legs and arms, I broke the surface and spewed the water out. There was no way I was going to let the undertow drag me down. I tried to break free of the fast-spinning, churning water, but vast jaws of swirling foam swallowed me up. I felt the tremendous force of the water washing over me, pulling me in, deeper and deeper. I twisted and fought again, and finally, I burst through the surface.
I sucked in desperate gulps of wonderful, glorious, awesome air. Roots and rocks grabbed at my feet, and branches and twigs scraped and poked me seemingly from all directions. My hands moved around me, frantic to grasp onto something—onto anything—but there was only water. The violent current pulled me under once again for a few seconds, but I found my way back up to steal another breath of air. My heart drummed harder against my chest, and more water rushed over my face. My eyes burned, and my vision blurred.
Then, finally and much to my relief, the river flow began to slow down. I had a fighting chance, so I grabbed at overhanging branches to stop my momentum.
“Dean!”
My heart leapt in response to the familiar voice, Lucas’s voice, and through blurry, drenched eyes, I saw him rushing toward me on the riverbank. I forced my burning muscles to propel me through the water. Gasping for breath, I swam toward shore until my feet touched the ground beneath me. The sand felt thick as it oozed over the top of my boots. I waded through the waist-high current that continued to tug at my legs with a violent undertow. My arms felt heavy and numb, and the pain in my legs intensified with the stifling weight of my wet clothes. Pebbles and sand shifted under my feet. Spluttering and coughing, I pushed the tangled hair out of my eyes. I climbed out, shivering as a cold breeze ran through my hair.
Piercing pain radiated across my chest and back. I bit my lip and held back a moan; finding my friends and my brother and sister was far more important than focusing on a little discomfort—or a lot of pain. I took another deep breath and forged ahead. “Lucas!” I called, stopping midstride.
Shadows stretched and shifted in the trees. Squinting, I peered closer to make sure the area was free of zombies, then leaned against a boulder to catch my breath.
Lucas clapped my shoulder as I doubled over, gasping for breath. My wet clothes and jacket clung to my skin and hung wet and heavy, weighing me down. Trying to stay warm, I absorbed every bit of sunshine I could.
“I-I’m so glad you’re alive,” I said.
He shot me his easygoing grin. “Meh, I’m pretty hard to kill. We should’ve never trusted those idiots.” Lucas held his shoulder with his hand as blood gushed steadily, then glanced at the river. “Did they throw Nick in too?”
I nodded and glanced down the river in frustration. I didn’t see Nick anywhere and hoped he hadn’t gotten tangled up in all those crazy vines and plants I’d felt grasping at my legs. I knew Nick could handle himself just fine, so I didn’t bother panicking just yet.
“Attempted murder, if ya ask me,” Lucas said.
My labored breathing eased, though my lungs still burned and my head pounded. “Yeah…at least. Those beasts were actually tossing people over the bridge,” I said.
“What!? Who?”
“I think…I’m afraid it was the girls.”
Lucas walked to the river edge and nearly collapsed.
“You’re hurt,” I said.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” he joked, rinsing blood off his hand and wincing. “Stab wound in the shoulder, but don’t worry. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine to me.” I pointed to a large rock. “Sit down and keep pressure on it. I’ll go look for the others.”
“Remember the scientist riding in the car behind me?”
“Yeah. What about him?”
“Well, turns out, he got mad when those idiots rammed me, and he got out. Big mistake on his part, ‘cause those maniacs threw him over the bridge for trying to defend me.”
I blinked, stunned. “Really? So he’s out here somewhere?”
>
“Must be, but I haven’t seen him. He was the first one to go over. Maybe he drowned.” Lucas shook his head.
“That’s not good.”
“You’re tellin’ me. That would suck, big time. We need that guy…bad.”
I noticed some commotion in the water and pointed to the river. “Hey! There’s Nick!”
“Dean? Lucas?” Nick said, his loud voice piercing the air. He waded through the current and headed toward the rocky bank. His chest heaved, and he sucked in giant gulps of air.
My shoulders slumped in relief that he was okay, and then I scanned the river for the others. I saw a tangle of arms and legs and a bunch of bobbing heads tumbling through the water. “Hang on to the branches!” I shouted. “They’ll slow you down.”
“Dean!” Jackie shouted.
Emotion flooded me as I heard her voice and spied her fighting the water. When she reached up to grab the overhanging branches, I rushed back into the water and pulled her into a tight embrace. I couldn’t believe they’d thrown an innocent woman off the bridge; then again, we obviously weren’t dealing with the sanest of people.
“Dean, those guys threw us into the river like ragdolls,” she said between gasps. “I’m glad to be away from them though.”
I hugged her, rubbing the hard knots in her shoulders with my palm. As she clutched me and buried her face in my chest, my arms encircled her in a strong grip.
“Those lunatics are dead meat!” Val vowed, breathing heavily in quick, shallow heaves.
I looked up to see my sister, one heck of a police officer, pulling herself from the current. “Val,” I said, relief flooding through me that she was alive and with us, “are you okay?”
She pushed her dripping black hair from her eyes. “Far from it, little brother. We’re right back at square one, with no weapons, no bullets, no medical supplies, no food, water, vials, or vehicle. This situation is starting to stink like Tahoe all over again.”
“No,” Jackie said, “this is much, much worse. At least when Tahoe left us, we had a few supplies and weapons. Now all we have are the shirts on our back…literally.”
I hugged my sister, and she hugged me back tightly. “I know things are bad, Val, but at least you aren’t hurt,” I said. “It doesn’t make sense though.”
“What?”
“Why did they save you only to throw you over the bridge?”
She smiled. “I don’t think they were going to throw us over at first, but we kinda ticked them off.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. I gave that guy in the red hat a firm kick in the nuts and called him a few choice names, and then all the girls started attacking them.”
I laughed.
“I’m surprised they didn’t shoot us,” she said, “but we had to try to fight, and they got their butts kicked by a bunch of girls—until they threw us over.”
I heard splashing and people calling my name. When I turned I saw Claire, Asia, and Kate collapsing in exhausted heaps on the riverbank.
“Nick!” Claire said, running toward my brother.
“Looks like we’re on our own again,” Val said. “We need to stick together.” She started to unbutton her black and red checkered shirt.
Nick stopped her. “What the heck are you doing?”
“We’re supposed to have each other’s backs, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Somebody’s gotta dress Lucas’s wound. We aren’t gonna get very far with him bleeding all over the place.” She slipped her long-sleeved shirt off, revealing a soaked white tank-top underneath.
“Oh. I didn’t realize you had a shirt on underneath.” Nick laughed, slightly embarrassed.
Chuckling, she wrung the material out, then wrapped it around Lucas’s wound and tied it up. “This shirt looks stupid on me anyway,” she said. “Lucas looks a lot better in it. Brings out his eyes,” she joked.
“Thanks, Val,” he said, smiling, “but won’t you freeze without it?”
“Not if you keep me warm.”
He grinned and wrapped an arm around her.
Water dripped from my hair and face as I glanced around at my friends and siblings: my brother, Nick, and sister, Val; the two girls we’d met in the forest, Claire and Jackie; Lucas, my brother’s best friend; Kate, who fought alongside us in the arena in Kingsville and kicked butt; and finally, Asia, who proved to be a valuable asset in our nursing home battle. “So we’re officially a team now, huh?”
“Yes,” Jackie said, “and I’m proud to be included. Now who’s in?”
We stood in a circle and slowly lifted eight hands in victory.
Nick’s lips pressed into a grim line. “The journey back home isn’t gonna be easy, boys and girls, and we’re gonna be faced with plenty of challenges, especially since we’re starting from scratch again. We’re going to have to fight with all we’ve got.”
“We will,” Lucas said, “and we need to just stick with this group. I’m tired of turncoats, and traitors. As far as I’m concerned, nobody else is allowed in this private club. We’ve let strangers in twice, and we’ve been burned both times. I know I can trust each and every one of you, but I refuse to trust anybody else.”
“Lucas is right,” Claire said. “No more strangers. We can’t trust anybody.”
“We lost the vials though,” I said grimly. “All that work, and they’re gone…just like that.”
Claire gave me a big smile, which puzzled me. “We didn’t lose the vials,” she said.
Nick grinned.
I cocked a brow. “What?”
She tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. “When you told me about those men and what they said and mentioned that you didn’t trust them and thought they might try to steal the vials from us, well…I hid them.”
My face beamed. “Really? Where are they?”
Claire patted the purse that hung from her shoulder. “Got ‘em right here, safe and sound.”
“What?” Asia asked, dumbfounded.
“Yeah, it was Nick’s idea,” Claire said. “We switched the vials at the nursing home and filled the black bag with vials of insulin and heparin. Nick asked me to carry the real serum because he was sure nobody would ever suspect I had them. Turns out, he was right.”
Confidence shone in Nick’s weary face, justifiably so; it was a brilliant plan to trust Claire with the vials.
“That’s why you grabbed your purse strap and told Nick to go ahead and give the men the vials!”
“Yep,” she said proudly.
“I had to play it cool,” Nick said. “If I had handed the bag right over, they might’ve suspected something.”
“Well played. Even I fell for it,” Jackie said. She nudged Claire. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was sworn to secrecy. Only Nick, Lucas, and I knew. Lucas put the tracker in my oversized purse, and we zipped it up in one of those plastic crayon bags from the activity room.”
“Brilliant!” I said, relief flooding through me as I realized all our trials had not been in vain and that the cure to save mankind was still in our possession.
My brother met my gaze. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have done it, Dean. You really had me thinking about those guys. Lucas and I had discussed ditching them from our group as soon as we could get away from them, and I sent Lucas to nose around a bit and ask some questions. They told him they didn’t understand why I’d been put in charge of the vials, and that was when I knew we had to do something.”
Lucas held his injured shoulder. “We just didn’t expect it to happen so soon. I figured they’d try to take it during the night and sneak away, not try to kill us in broad daylight in a vehicular ambush.”
“Well, maybe they were hoping to have the element of surprise on their side,” Kate said, shaking her head. “I just…I really thought they were my friends, even though I hadn’t known them that long.”
“You heard Nick,” Asia said. “Trust nobody.”
Sickeningly famili
ar, hungry moans echoed from the forest, and we all glanced at each other. Every muscle in my body tensed, and I blinked, as if that might make the nightmare go away. When I opened my eyes again, the reality hit me: It was time to fight, to survive another day.
“What do we do now?” Claire asked, then pressed her lips together in a hard line. “We have no weapons.”
The scent of rot filled the cool air as I picked up the sharpest, deadliest rock I could find. “We fight!” I shouted.
Val reached down and picked up jagged-edge rock of his own. “We fight!” she parroted.
Jackie held a stone about the size of a softball. “We fight, people!”
Kate picked up a rock of her own, one that fit perfectly snug in her hand. “We fight, fight, fight!”
Nick picked up a huge rock that resembled a bowling ball. “We head into battle…and we fight.”
“We fight!” Lucas roared.
“We fight,” Asia whispered with fire in her eyes. “We take on anything the world throws at us and knock it out of the park.”
Even Claire, who hated confrontations with zombies, picked up a natural weapon and wailed, “We fight…for our lives!”
And with that, we headed into the vegetation, ready to take on whatever came our way.
Chapter 3
My mouth dropped as I watched the scene unfold before my eyes. The living dead staggered along through the vegetation, stumbling over moss-covered logs as they approached through the towering trees. There weren’t more than a dozen of them, so I was sure we could easily defeat them. We didn’t have any real weapons, but there were eight of us, and that was a definite advantage.
Not wasting a second, my sister was the first to charge at a zombie, releasing a loud battle cry as she ran. She kicked its knees out, and it hurtled back and crumbled. A cluster of zombies came at us from the left. Nick picked up the closet corpse and whipped it into the crowd of infected, causing them to clumsily fall. One zombie crawled forward on its knees, glaring at Lucas with glazed-over, greenish-gray eyes, and Lucas ran and drop-kicked it. Asia let out a yell and grabbed a short man’s hair, then slammed his head into a nearby tree trunk, just as Kate delivered a savage kick to a stick-think zombie with frizzy black hair.
The Zombie Chronicles - Book 5 - Undead Nightmare (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 2