“We gave you the gun,” I said. “You coulda just blown it away.”
“I would have if it had gotten in, but I didn’t want to go out there and chase it and cause a commotion that might have attracted more of them.”
“Smart,” Kate said, smiling at her.
“What took you guys so long?” Claire asked. “And have you seen Nick or any of them?”
“The others aren’t back?” I asked.
“Not yet,” she said, holding a washcloth on Lucas’s head.
“I hope they’re not out looking for us,” I said, casting Val a worried glance.
“Did you find a pharmacy?” Claire frantically asked. “He’s really sick. His temperature has to be well over 102 by now.”
“We got the medicine,” Val said, patting the plastic bag slung over her shoulder. “It wasn’t easy, but there are plenty of antibiotics, painkillers, and stuff to bring his fever down.”
“Great,” Claire said. “He’s gonna need them. This yellow goop started coming out of his shoulder, and he woke up and mumbled something about Mexican food, but I couldn’t understand what he was talking about.”
“Mexican food?” I asked, almost laughing. “Leave it to Lucas to dream about that.”
“I also picked up supplies to change his bandage later,” Kate added.
Claire nodded. “Good, ‘cause he’s in pretty bad shape.”
“You…you beat the others,” Lucas whispered.
“We found a phonebook,” Kate said proudly, since it had been her brilliant idea. “Saved us a lot of time in looking for the drugstore. Where do you think the others went?”
Claire looked off anxiously into the distance. “I don’t know, but they’re out there somewhere, I hope.”
“We’ve got a truck,” Kate said.
“What a relief,” Claire said. “I was really hoping one of you guys would come back with transportation.”
“Where are the others?” Lucas stood, took a step, and swayed. “We need to find them.”
“Sit down, Lucas! You’re in no shape to go anywhere,” Claire said, helping him.
“Life is harsh, mean, and ugly,” Lucas said. “Only the strong survive.” He held onto Claire and she helped him sit down on the wooden bench.
“You’re one of the strongest people I know,” she said. “But you’re sick and we have to get you better. Trust me, you’ll be back slaying zombies in no time.”
“You’re not gonna be a baby about swallowing pills, are ya?” Val said to Lucas, smiling and holding out a handful.
“Honey, I’ll take whatever you can give me,” he said. He tried to wink at her, but his eye wouldn’t open back up when he shut it.
“Great,” Val said as he took the pills from her and popped them in his mouth. “Now let’s go find the others and get back on the road.”
Lucas grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Thank you for everything.”
“You helped me when I was sick and hallucinating,” she said. “You never gave up on me, and I’m never going to give up on you.”
“Thanks, Val. That means so much to me.” Lucas glanced around. “Thank you, Kate, Dean, and Claire. I can’t thank you enough.”
“I’ve got your back,” I said. “Always.”
“I’m so proud of you, Dean. You’re not a boy anymore. This world has taught you how to be a man.”
I smiled because he sounded so proud when he said it. That was the first time Lucas every told me anything like that.
He put an arm over each one of our shoulders, and Val and I helped him inside the truck. To make more room, Kate sat on my lap.
Claire motioned down the street. “Turn that way. They said they were gonna cover the north side of the city.” Claire stared at the broken windshield. “Did you guys do that?”
“Yep,” Kate said.
“It might be easier to bust the smaller windows next time,” Lucas said with a chuckle.
“Right,” Val said, “but we couldn’t. We jumped off a roof, and the truck was surrounded by zombies.”
“Whoa,” he said. “And all for little ol’ me?” he asked, closing his eyes.
“That was only after we rescued the modern-day Brady bunch by ringing church bells,” I said.
“You’re lucky we like you, Lucas,” Kate chimed in. “We saw millions of zombies, and we barely got your medicine.”
He looked up at her. “Gee. Well, I appreciate you putting your lives on the line for me. I hope you know I’d do the same.”
Val gripped his hand. “I know you would.”
He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
A banging sound echoed in the air from behind me and I glanced over my shoulder.
Val stopped, but we didn’t hear anything so we continued. A few minutes later, we heard it again.
“Something’s thumping,” Claire said.
“Someone’s back there,” I said. “Someone’s in the U-Haul.”
“Great,” Kate said. “Just what we need. More complications.”
“It’s not people,” Val said. “They would’ve already died of dehydration. The only thing that could last that long are zombies.”
“I’m beat,” Claire said. “We’ll get them later when there’s all of us. It’s best that way since we don’t have a gun.”
“Stop the truck!” Kate suddenly yelled. “I see Asia.”
I looked out the window as she frantically waved her arms and ran toward us. As she got closer, I noticed blood oozing from a gash on her neck. I blinked, and a shiver slid down my spine.
“She’s been attacked!” Val said. She slowed down and flung open the door. “What happened?”
“I was…I was bitten again,” she stuttered.
“Where’re Nick and Jackie?” Val asked, her eyes wide.
“Nick found a…a gun store. I was supposed to go back and meet him, but I-I didn’t make it, and—”
“And what?” I said, my voice frantic. “Where’s Jackie?”
She looked away, her eyes filling with tears, as if she was overcome by grief. “I’m so sorry, Dean.”
I jumped out of the truck as shock consumed me. “Sorry? What do you mean, you’re sorry? Where is she, Asia?”
“We…we lost her.”
My heart beat so hard that it felt as if it would rip through my chest at any moment. “What? You can’t be serious! She was with you, and you were supposed to be looking out for each other, and you…you—”
She gazed into my eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
I gripped her shoulders, and terror flooded through me. “What happened?”
Val approached her, her eyes wide with shock. “Asia, you said you lost her. Where’d you see her last?”
She pointed down the street. “About a half-mile away, by the jewelry store.”
“And exactly what happened?” Kate asked. “Were you attacked by zombies?”
“Just one,” she said, trembling.
“You couldn’t take down one zombie?” Kate said, sounding critical.
“You don’t understand. I-I couldn’t kill it,” she said, sobbing.
“Why not?” I demanded.
She gazed straight into my eyes. “Because it…because that one zombie was…it was Jackie.”
Chapter 12
I was speechless and felt as if I’d just been struck by lightning.
“Jackie turned into a hybrid?” Val asked, dumbfounded.
“Yes,” Asia said, “and she…she tried to kill me.”
“We’ve gotta find Nick,” Val said. “Where’s this gun shop you mentioned?”
“A few blocks away,” Asia whispered.
Val found a handkerchief in the glove department and applied pressure to the place where Jackie had bitten Asia.
“You go after Nick,” I said to my sister, “and I’ll find Jackie.”
“Find Jackie? What are you talking about, Dean? You’re not thinking straight.”
“I’m thinking, fine, Val!”
; “Nick is by himself, unarmed, and only a few blocks away. We need to get our brother first, and then we’ll all go after Jackie. From the looks of the bite on Asia’s neck, I’m pretty sure your girlfriend can take care of herself right now. Our brother, on the other hand, needs us.”
I had never been angry with Val before, but I couldn’t believe she’d said something so cruel. “Val, how can you say—”
“We’ve got no time for sibling rivalries, you two!” Kate lectured. “If Jackie turned, she’ll be like the other hybrids we’ve encountered, and we’ll have to take extreme precautions.”
“But she can’t be one of them. Not Jackie,” I mumbled. “She just…can’t.”
Claire gripped my hand. “We’re heading to a lab, Dean. We can restrain her on the way if we have to, for our protection and hers, but we’ll take her there and get her tested. I know you won’t desert my cousin, and I won’t either,” she said, her voice trembling. “She stopped at nothing to find me when that Larry kidnapped me, and I refuse to give up on her.” She grabbed me by the hand and yanked me down the street. “I have rope in my bag,” she said.
“Wait!” Val shouted, but we ignored her and kept walking.
“Rope is good,” I said. “Sounds like we’ll need it.”
“We’ll figure out how to get her back, Dean. I promise.”
“I’m sure there has to be a way,” I said, still in shock as my mind tried to make sense of Asia’s words. So many days had passed that I was sure we were out of the danger zone when it came to the girls turning, and none of the others had turned, but we really knew absolutely nothing about the serum and its deadly side effects. Guilt flooded through me; I’d placed those fatal drops into her mouth. What have I done? I thought as my stomach knotted up.
Just as my thoughts began to torture me, the U-Haul rolled up next to me.
“Dean, if you don’t get in this truck, so help me God, I’m gonna get out and drag you in here myself,” Val shouted.
I rolled my eyes but refused to look at her. “I’m getting Jackie, with or without you, Val.”
“We’ll help you, but we’re finding Nick first.”
I met her gaze, but no words came out of my mouth.
“Please,” Val begged. “I just found my brothers, and I can’t bear to lose either of you. Jackie will be fine out there for now, because the zombies won’t attack their own kind. Nick won’t be so lucky. How are you gonna live with yourself if he dies because you’re too busy playing hero?”
“Nice try, Val, but we both know Nick can take care of himself.”
“Not against a thousand zombies!” Val yelled. “You were with us out in these streets a little while ago, Dean. You saw all the—”
“Dean!” Nick yelled, stopping her lecture short.
I glanced down the street and saw my brother waving at me as he stood in front of a gun store. When I rushed over to him, I stared at the piles of weapons in awe.
“Feels like I won the super-lotto,” he said, wearing a proud grin. “The store was completely wiped out, but there was an obscure, locked basement door. I had one heck of a time getting that door open, but it was sure worth it. Just look at this stash. I even found working walkie-talkies.”
Just as I opened my mouth to speak, he cut me off.
“I see you got some wheels,” he said, nodding up the street at the U-Haul, “but did you get the antibiotics for Lucas?”
I nodded and was just about to tell him about Jackie when Val softly honked the horn and pulled along the curb. “Whoa, Rambo,” she said. “Looks like you hit the mother lode.”
Nick smiled. “How’d you know I’d need a moving truck for all this stuff, sis? This is perfect.”
“Nothing’s perfect!” I shouted.
“So you lost the windshield. It’s no biggie. I’m sure the driver has zombie insurance. Besides, we’ll find a better truck sooner or later and—”
“Nick, Asia was bitten by…a zombie,” Claire said, tears falling down her cheeks.
He arched a brow. “What?”
I glared at my brother. “Maybe if you’d have been with her, she wouldn’t have gotten bitten.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “It’s awful, but at least she’s immune, she’ll heal up. Now gimme a hand with this, will ya? Half of you play lookout, and the other half help us load up the guns.” He passed everyone a loaded weapon and tried to organize an assembly line to load up the truck with the arsenal he’d looted.
“Jackie bit her, Nick,” I said flatly.
Nick’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“Apparently, it doesn’t matter how much time passes,” Val said sadly. “It just depends on…well, how long our bodies can hold out, I guess.”
The pain was evident on Nick’s face. “I’m so sorry, Dean,” he said. “I-I didn’t know.” He turned back to Val. “We’ll get you to the lab and figure out what’s happening. I promise.”
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I could barely get the words out. “I’m not leaving this town without Jackie,” I said.
“Me neither,” Claire said, crossing her arms.
“Of course not. Where is she?” Nick asked.
“Asia supposedly lost her at a jewelry store.”
“We’ll go after her, Dean. Let’s get this loaded up, and then we’ll find her.”
“Something’s banging around the back of the truck,” Val said.
Nick cocked a brow. “Well, let’s check it out.”
Kate used her crowbar to snap the lock open on the back doors of the U-Haul, careful to aim her gun as she did so. As she expected, a zombie jumped out and landed on her. With both legs, she thrust the thing high into the air and jumped back on her feet in a smooth move that would have been the envy of any Olympic gymnast. To our grim surprise, more zombies poured out, an angry mob of teeth-gnashing, arm-flailing monsters.
“Start shooting!” I yelled. We all knew it was dangerous to make so much noise in the zombie-infested town, but we couldn’t survive the onslaught without some serious firepower. Nick didn’t stop me, so I knew he agreed with my decision.
“Don’t shoot till they’re all out of the truck,” Kate advised. “We can’t waste time hauling the bodies out of there.”
The first one jumped out and stumbled, and as I looked at its skinless face and big, bulging eyes, I was glad that I could give up the bat for a real weapon. The zombie was covered with rotting cuts and wounds, and its ribcage was exposed through patches of bruised, torn, greenish-gray skin. My trigger clicked, and the body dropped dead at my feet. The next one jumped down at me, so emaciated that I could easily count all its ribs, and I promptly nailed it square between the eyes. The others flooded out, and we all stepped back and fired as fast as we could, till we took out every single one of them, littering the street with their bodies.
“I’m sure their friends’ll be here in no time with all that gunfire,” Val said. “Let’s get these weapons loaded fast and get outta here!”
Zigzagging around the pile of dead zombies, we all started to load the truck.
“Nick, pull the truck away from them,” I said. “We need more room, and I’m tired of crawling over dead zombies.”
He ignored me, but he finally complied when Claire asked. “Please pull the truck up, Nick,” she said between sobs. “The faster we get this done, the faster we can find Jackie.”
Once we were finished loading ammo and weapons, we all rode in the back except Val and Lucas. Nick made sure we all had loaded, working weapons and gave walkie-talkies to the group in the cab and the others in the back. As we drove along, Kate used a first aid kit to clean Asia’s wound and then dressed it with a sterile white bandage and tape.
I sat on the floor, pondering how everything could have gotten so awful. I was so worried about Jackie that I almost wanted to cry.
My brother slapped my back. “I’m sorry, Dean. We’ll get Jackie to the lab, but we’ve gotta be realistic. There are no guarantees.”
“I know t
hat,” I whispered.
My brother wrapped his arm around Claire, who sat on the other side of him. “Your cousin’s a tough one,” he assured her. “We’ll bring her back if we can, but I can’t promise you everything is going to be okay. This is…a whole new world.”
She sniffled. “I know, but we have to at least try. Jackie deserves a chance.”
“I’m all for saving Jackie,” Kate said, “but we need to be safe ourselves. If she breaks free, she’ll kill everyone in this vehicle, unless we kill her first.”
“I won’t let her bite me again,” Asia said flatly. “I don’t want to hurt her, but—”
“We’ll cover her face with a blanket or sack or something,” Claire said. “It’ll calm her down.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It worked wonders with Val when she was a zombie.”
The truck stopped a few minutes later, and Val opened the door. “Come on out,” she said. “The coast is clear—for now.”
I hopped out and stared at the jewelry store. “Two of us need to stay behind to guard the truck and watch Lucas.”
“Right,” Nick said. “Kate and Claire, would you two do the honors?”
“Sure,” Kate said.
Claire wanted to help rescue her cousin, so she put up a bit of a fight about being left behind, but she didn’t want to cause problems or cost us any valuable time.
Asia pointed her gun and took a few brave steps toward the store.
I walked through the empty door frame, shining my flashlight beam all around. The place had been looted and smashed, and the carpet was covered with shattered glass.
“It’s clear,” Nick said, shining his thin black flashlight.
“Jackie?” I said. “It’s Dean.” I heard footsteps coming down a creaky set of stairs, and then I saw a figure on the other side of the store.
“Dean?” the raspy voice said.
My heart sank at the sight of her. I had hoped Asia had been mistaken, but she’d told us the truth. I raced toward Jackie, but she turned around and headed back up the staircase.
Nick was faster than me and beat me up the stairs. At the top, it was dark, with no daylight coming in through the windows.
I swallowed hard as I spun in a slow circle, my nerves on complete edge. “Jackie, it’s me, Dean,” I said. “Asia told me everything, and I’m here to help you get well. I don’t care what you look like, baby. We’ll help you. I promise.”
The Zombie Chronicles - Book 5 - Undead Nightmare (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 11