Undead Ultra Box Set | Books 1-4

by Picott, Camille

  Stealth, I realize. That’s our biggest asset. Our only asset. We have to move quietly enough to avoid their attention and let Carter’s distraction do the rest.

  In theory, this is a great idea. In practice, it’s difficult when there are so many zombies. More and more of them stagger into sight with each passing second.

  Reed and I dodge through the melee with one another, sticking close to Ben as he slaps another stick of explosive to the wall. Half a dozen zombies are dangerously close to us. I have to draw them away from Ben and give him more time.

  I scoop up a rock and hurl it as hard as I can at a first-floor dorm window. It cracks the glass, but doesn’t shatter it.

  Reed gives me a look of profound sympathy before hefting his own rock. His pitch shatters the glass.

  The cluster of zombies veers away from us, heading for the broken window. Reed and I attack them from behind, dropping them with our knives, zom bats, and screwdrivers.

  We rush back to Ben, putting our backs to him with our weapons raised as he works. Once finished with this area, we scurry across a breezeway to another part of the building. The crack of Eric’s rifle fills the air. I can only hope he’s successfully taking out the alphas.

  As we pass the breezeway, I hear the rattle of iron. I glance at the tall wrought iron gate that separates College Creek from the large athletic field on the other side. Though many zombies have fallen during our target practice sessions, there are still a lot out there.

  The rattle of the field gate draws the attention of another cluster of undead that fumble their way down the breezeway. They veer in the direction of the gate, moaning in response to the noise of their brethren on the other side. They reach the gate, latching onto the bars and rattling them. The wrought-iron fence begins to rock in its cement foundation.

  As much as the scene worries me, at the moment it’s not a threat. What is an immediate concern is a zombie woman with two broken legs who claws her way in our direction. Reed dispatches her with a blow to the head.

  “Done,” Ben says, dropping his empty box of explosives and turning to us. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  I couldn’t agree more.

  We turn, the three of us shoulder-to-shoulder—only to stop dead in our tracks. Between us and the way out is a massive wall of undead. At their forefront, leading the pack straight toward us, is the teenage alpha zombie in the Victoria’s Secret sweatshirt.

  21

  No Way Out

  BEN

  “Run,” Ben says, turning to Kate and Reed. “I’ll blow the buildings.”

  “Fuck that. We’re not leaving you,” Kate replies. Without another word, she lifts the rocket launcher onto her shoulder, taking aim at the mass descending on them.

  Ben only has time to scream “No!” before she pulls the trigger.

  The force of the rocket launcher throws her flat against the ground. The rocket shoots out at a wild angle, making a curlicue through the air before striking.

  Her rocket flies into the flank of the undead closing in on them. The ground explodes, sending out a cloud of grit, smoke, and undead body parts.

  The explosion sets off the zombies. They stampede straight for the noise, falling and tripping in their haste to reach the sound. Not even the teenage alpha zombie can rein them in.

  A path opens up. Ben spins around to find Kate groaning on the ground. She rubs at the back of her head, her hand coming away sticky with fresh blood. The sight of it freezes his guts.

  “Come on, Mama.” Reed helps her up.

  Ben pulls the rocket launcher from around her shoulder. “I’ll take that,” he growls. “You’re going to bring a damn building down on us.”

  Kate’s eyes are glazed from her fall, but Ben notes the stiffening of her jaw. She might hurt like hell, but she’s still in this fight. Good.

  The three of them make their way away from the dorms in a tight cluster, heading for the opening created by Kate’s rocket. In the confusion, most of the zombies don’t notice them. They take out any who get too close with a knife through the ear or eye.

  A new explosion rocks the ground to the east. Following hard on the heels of the first explosion are three more in rapid succession. The dorm on the eastern-most edge of the cluster disintegrates in a reverse mushroom cloud.

  The force of the blast throws Ben sideways. He smacks straight into several zombies.

  A hand latches onto his arm. Another grabs his knee. Ben’s nostrils flare in rage and fear as he tries to twist away.

  Reed leaps into the fray, landing on the back of an undead just as it raises its mouth to bite down on Ben’s thigh. A whip-quick strike across the back of the neck severs the brain stem and drops the monster.

  Reed springs toward the next nearest zombie, executing the same lethal move. The kid is as fast with his knife as he is with his feet.

  Ben kicks the rest of the way free and clambers to his feet, searching for Kate.

  He finds her facing off against four undead, wielding her zombie club like a demon. Her face is painted in red blood, her eyes wild. He rushes toward her with Reed on his heels, the three of them dispatching the zombies.

  He’s about to tell them both to get the hell out of there when another succession of explosions rips through the air. This time, it’s the centerline dorm. Ben barely has time to register the impending collapse before a wave of soot and smoke rushes over them.

  He reaches for Kate, throwing himself on top of her to shelter her from the blast. Reed dog piles in with them, the three of them going down.

  The spray of debris is like acid across his skin, cutting through his clothes. A piece of shrapnel embeds itself into his shoulder, hurting like a motherfucker. He wipes grit out of his eyes, searching the cloudy landscape. His ears ring and his eyes burn.

  Another building down. Another wall between the campus and the undead swarm.

  The last building is on the west side—his building. He has to take it down. The C-4 is all in place, but fuck, they’re too close to it.

  His searches through the debris for an opening, but there are none. It’s a seething mess of undead and rubble, and it’s only getting worse.

  How ironic. They might indeed save the campus if they manage to get this building down, but they might all die in the process.

  “Reed.” Kate’s voice comes out in a gasp. She helps the slender boy sit up. A huge gash mars his forehead, spilling blood down his face and soaking his clothes.

  “Get him out of here,” Ben says. “Take cover. We can’t wait any longer.”

  “What about you?” Her eyes are anguished as she looks to him.

  “Move it!” he barks.

  Kate loops her hands under Reed’s arm and helps him to the protective shelter of a large fountain. He waits just long enough to see them hunker down on the far side.

  Then he spins around, raises the rocket launcher, and fires.

  The first missile strikes the side of the farthest building. Ben reloads and fires a second time, then a third, and then a fourth.

  The backlash from the buildings is thunderous and absolute. A billowing wall of smoke and grit engulfs him, swallowing him whole.

  The world goes dark.

  22

  Improvise

  KATE

  The ringing in my ears is the only thing I hear. Something heavy sits on my back and shoulders. Reed’s body is slack underneath me.

  I attempt to open my eyes. My effort is rewarded by a blast of debris right in the face. I try to breathe, but all I get is a lungful of grit. Coughing bends me in half.

  I try again. Pushing my nose into the sleeve of my shirt, I suck for air. I’m rewarded with a meager lungful. I suck a second time, getting more oxygen.

  Bracing my knees against the hard stone beneath me, I shove. Something slides off my back with a sick wet sound. It’s a zombie body. The head and the right arm are both missing, the orifices oozing black blood all over me.

  Beneath me, Reed stirs. His eyes
flutter open, then snap shut as he’s assaulted by the same grime that hit me.

  I crouch and press a hand to Reed’s cheek in a silent question. He nods, mouth moving in answer, but I still can’t hear. We help each other stand, holding onto one another. I wipe blood from the side of his eye. Or, I try to. All I manage to do is smear grit into the blood. Reed shakes his head back and forth, sending droplets of fresh red showering to the ground.

  Absolute destruction surrounds us. The College Creek dorms lie in enormous piles of rubble. Whether by sheer dumb luck or precise calculation under pressure, Ben managed to place the explosives in just the right place on our building. The dorms on the west tipped the right way, completely barricading any entrance into the campus on this side.

  I scrutinize the settling dust, alert for danger. Hands and feet move in the rubble. Only a few undead still stand nearby, moaning and turning in small circles of confusion. None are close enough to be an immediate threat.

  To the east, the rest of the buildings have fallen. And emerging from the gritty air is the remaining zombie pack. They’ve reassembled around the teenage alpha zom, at least a hundred strong. She and her pack miraculously survived the explosions and are once again pushing into the campus.

  The alpha clicks and keens a series of instructions. The pack spreads out on either side of her, sweeping straight for the heart of Humboldt University.

  Where is everyone? Ash? Jesus? Carter? Johnny? Eric? Ben? I don’t see anyone. I can’t see my family.

  I swallow against my dry, gritty throat. There has to be something I can do. Something to protect the campus. I don’t know who’s left alive, but hell if I’m going to roll over and let the swarm take Humboldt.

  The buzzing in my ears recedes, allowing a new sound to make its way to my ears. Music. I hear music.

  Carter.

  A robin’s egg blue Caravan charges through the ruined landscape, heading straight for us. Jenna hangs out the window, waving her arms at us. Carter leans over the wheel, eyes intent.

  Tears of joy leak from the side of my eyes. Carter. Jenna. Reed. Three of my kids are still alive.

  Movement in my periphery. Johnny staggers out from behind a pile of rubble. Ash, Jesus, and Eric are with him. Susan extracts herself from the bottom of a metal table that somehow survived the blasts.

  We all converge on the minivan as it slams to a halt.

  “Mom.” Carter leaps out of the car and crushes me in a bear hug. I throw my arms around him, using the moment to dry my tears on his shoulder and gather myself. We’re not out of the woods yet.

  “I took out three alphas,” Eric reports. “The fourth one had already moved past the library and was out of my line of sight when I got to the rec center. I’m sorry, I couldn’t get her.”

  I give his shoulder a squeeze. “You did good, Eric.” Three was better than one or none. That still leaves us with the problem of the last alpha, though. The teenage alpha.

  I stare past the ruins, my eyes taking in the seething swarm that continues to boil onto the campus. If we stand here much longer, we’ll be blotted from the face of the earth.

  I have to do something.

  “Ben is missing.” Jenna scans the area, brow creased in worry.

  I refuse to believe Ben is dead. He’s too tough and too grumpy to die.

  “Go find Ben for me.” I kiss Carter’s cheek. Not giving myself a second to reconsider the half-baked plan taking shape in my brain, I shoulder past him and jump into the driver’s seat of Skip. It’s time to improvise.

  “Mom!” Carter spins around, but I slam the door.

  “Take care of everyone,” I say, throwing the car into reverse.

  “Mom, stop!” Carter latches both hands onto the open window. “Mom!”

  To my horror, he throws up a leg, hooking it through the window.

  “Get down,” I cry.

  The look he gives me is fierce. He looks so much like his father my breath catches. In a maneuver that is part strength, part yoga ninja, Carter drags himself through the open window. He slides across my lap and scrambles into the passenger seat.

  “What the hell, Mom?”

  “I’m going to blow up the library. You need to get out, son.”

  “What do you mean, you’re going to blow up the library?”

  I jerk a thumb toward the back of the van. “The beer kegs. They’re full of fermenting liquid. We have a bomb on wheels, sweetheart.” I meet his gaze. “I’m going to blow the side of the library. If I’m lucky, it will be enough to bury most of those fuckers and solidify our barrier.”

  Carter stares at me, mouth agape. “Mom, there’s a shit load of zombies between us and the library. We’ll never make it.”

  He’s right. In the last sixty seconds, the alpha and her pack have massed outside the library.

  “I got this, Mamita.”

  I turn in surprise to see Jesus standing by the open driver’s side window. The dents in his forehead stand out under the bright morning sun.

  “I’ll clear the way. You get the bomb to the library.” His eyes are hard, focused. “Creekside crew! ¡Mi familia!”

  Before I can form a sentence, Jesus fist pumps the air and sprints away, shouting at the top of his lungs. He streaks in the direction of the rubble, firing his gun into the air.

  A keen crescendos, mixed with howls and growls. Like a giant amoeba, the pack flexes and rotates, oozing in the direction of Jesus.

  “Drive!” Carter shouts. His blue eyes flare, and he jumps into the back. “I’ll get the kegs ready. It’s a good thing Jenna and I decided to age this ale or we wouldn’t have a bomb right now.”

  There isn’t time to argue. There isn’t time to debate. There isn’t time to pull Jesus back to safety. There isn’t time to grab Carter by the scruff of his neck and heave him out of the van.

  I do the only thing I can. I slam my foot on the accelerator and zoom toward the library.

  “How are we going to detonate these?” Carter yells.

  A glance over my shoulder reveals him packing lumps of C-4 around the base of the kegs. He has the kegs on their sides, the fermenting liquid leaking out all over the floor.

  “Grenade.” I tap my belt, touching the only grenade I have. In the confusion of the morning, I can’t even recall how it ended up there.

  “That’ll work,” Carter hollers. “The van has cruise control. We paid extra for it.”

  “You paid extra for cruise control?” I shout back, recalling the shitty state of the van when I first saw it. I can’t imagine paying extra for any special feature on this rust bucket.

  “Yeah, Jenna likes cruise control.”

  I zip past the tail end of the swarm, straight through the corridor Jesus made for us. A blur of rotting skin and dark blood fills my periphery. A look in the rearview mirror shows several dozen peeling off to pursue us, but most of them continue after their alpha. After Jesus.

  “It’s time for you to get out, son. I’ll take it from here.” I slow the van just enough so he can jump out.

  “No way, Mom.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’ll put the van in cruise control and jump when I’m closer. I’ll have a better chance of pulling this off if I don’t have to worry about you.”

  Carter narrows his eyes at me. “Okay. But you have to promise to jump. No kamikaze stuff.”

  “I promise, sweetie. I don’t plan on dying today. Who’s going to take care of you guys if I’m not here?”

  Carter flings open the passenger side door. The pavement whizzes past.

  He turns for a bare second, our eyes meeting.

  “I love you, baby.”

  “Love you, too, Mom. See you soon.”

  With that, he leaps. Even above the hum of the engine, I hear the impact of his body on the ground.

  Carter.

  I grip the steering wheel and zoom away, streaking toward the library. A glance to my right shows Jesus on top of a statue between the College Creek rubble and the library. He fires his gun in
to the air, doing his damnedest to draw the alpha and her pack.

  I swerve around a group of stragglers. The library looms before me, a wide megalith of dark cement. All that knowledge. And I’m about to blow it all to hell.

  Setting the accelerator to thirty, I punch the cruise control button. Then, I pull the pin, toss the grenade, and throw myself out of the van.

  I have a brief glimpse of the grenade rolling across the floor of the van—then I crash headlong into a bush. Pain explodes as I tear through the plant and hit the ground on the other side. The grenade detonates, ripping through the air with an explosion.

  The library leaps from its foundation. It seems to hang, suspended above the ground for several seconds.

  The library crashes down as though in slow motion. It strikes the ground with a boom and ripples through earth and air. The rumble rolls outward, sending the building forth in every direction. A landslide of cinderblocks buries the left flank of the undead swarm. The rest are swallowed in an expulsion of flying debris—including the statue where Jesus is perched.

  “Jesus!” I scream his name.

  A cloud of grit and debris hurtles toward me. I curl into a ball and throw my hands over my head. The exposed parts of my skin burn as thousands of tiny particles scour over me like sand paper.

  Then silence descends.

  A few moans pepper the air. I raise my head, blinking through grime-encrusted lashes. The dust begins to settle, revealing a massive mound of misshapen debris all around.

  There is no sign of the alpha, no sign of her pack. They are buried beneath the remains of the library.

  “Jesus.” I try to stand, but my legs give out on me. I hurt everywhere. My eyes scour the rubble as I search for some sign of him.

  I notice several small branches embedded in my skin, probably from the bush I landed on. One protrudes from my bicep. Another is lodged just below my collarbone.

  I pluck them out, barely feeling the sting. My eyes continue to rove, searching for Jesus.

  I want to pass out. I want to disappear into the dark.

  “Kate!”

  I blink in confusion. I must have hit my head. I’m definitely hallucinating. Either that, or I’m dead. Because what I’m seeing right now makes no sense.