Dead Is a Battlefield

by Marlene Perez

  “She’s not feeling well,” I repeated. I wondered if I should tell Bethany the truth about what had happened. I decided I shouldn’t, not unless I wanted to be laughed out of school.

  “Not my problem,” she said. She started to walk away, but I gripped her arm tight and held on. “Look, Bethany, for once in your selfish life, be a good sister and take care of Eva.”

  “You think you’re so hot, now that you’re dating Dominic Gray,” she said. “I’m not taking orders from you.”

  It would serve Bethany right if Eva sucked out her brains. I didn’t really care what happened to Bethany, but Eva would never forgive herself for eating her sister.

  Fortunately, Dominic chose that moment to arrive on the scene.

  “Everything all right, Jessica?” he asked. He gave me a quick hug and Bethany glared at me behind his back and stomped off.

  “I think I should take Eva to Flo,” I said. “Something is wrong.” In a low voice, I briefly explained what had really occurred.

  “I’ll help you get Eva to the car and then find Raven so we can leave,” he said.

  Eva was docile, obediently following us to Dominic’s car. She still had a curiously blank look in her eyes. I sat in the back seat with her. There was no way I was turning my back on her, just in case she got a hankering for brain tacos. Besides, she was my best friend. I grabbed her hand to comfort her, but it was cold and clammy. A minute later, her teeth started to chatter.

  On the way, my phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number, but I picked it up. “Hello?”

  “Jessica, it’s Rose. I have the results of the perfume analysis back.”

  “What did you find out?”

  “The fragrance’s base is an extremely rare fungi,” Rose told me. “The carrier produces the fungus and then spreads it by getting others to absorb it through their skin or eat it.”

  “The carrier? How can I tell who or what that is?”

  “Probably an insect of some kind,” she said. “But that’s not the weird part.”

  “What’s the weird part?”

  “The fungus causes symptoms similar to zombie-ism. It’s crucial that we isolate the carrier before we have an outbreak on our hands.”

  “I think it’s too late,” I said with a sob. “I think we already have a zombie outbreak on our hands. And my best friend is one of the victims.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “Bring Eva to Slim’s,” Rose said. “I’ll meet you there. And hurry. We might not have much time.”

  Dominic came back with Raven in tow and we took off for the diner.

  Rose met us at the door. “Get Eva to drink this,” she said.

  “What’s in it?” I asked.

  “Just get her to drink it,” she ordered. “It’s the best I could do on such short notice.”

  I reached out to take it from her and she noticed the bite mark on my hand. She grabbed my wrist. “Hold still,” she said. “What happened?”

  “Eva bit me,” I said. The mark had turned a strange purple and my hand was swollen.

  Eva sat down obediently while Raven fed her Rose’s concoction.

  Flo frowned at me. “You might have mentioned that before now.” She wheeled around and stomped to the office.

  “What did I do wrong?” I wondered.

  “It’s just Flo being Flo,” a voice said. “Sit down and rest.” I looked around but couldn’t figure out where the voice came from.

  I started to feel woozy. I swayed, but Dominic grabbed me and steadied me. He helped me to a booth. “What’s wrong with me?” I asked. “I feel hot.”

  Flo came back, but she didn’t look happy. I’d probably flunked some virago test I didn’t even know about by getting bitten by the first zombie I met.

  “It’s the virus entering your bloodstream,” Rose said matter-of-factly. “Here, drink this.”

  “Virus?”

  She gave me a look. “Jessica, concentrate. Remember what I just told you on the phone about the zombie fungus?”

  “Z-zombie . . . me?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Now drink up.”

  I took a cautious sip. “It tastes like feet,” I complained.

  “Drink it,” Rose repeated. “Unless you want to get a sudden craving for brains.”

  “Gross,” I said. I shuddered but drank every drop without further protest.

  The place where Eva had bitten me felt hot and itchy.

  “Stop scratching it,” Raven said. “Remember what Rose told you.”

  “It itches like crazy,” I told her.

  Rose put a hand to my forehead. “You’re hot,” she said, frowning. “Someone needs to watch them overnight.”

  “We can do it,” Dominic said.

  “What will we tell our parents?”

  “That’s easy,” Raven replied. “We’ll have a slumber party at my house. My aunt’s a nurse, so she can help if—”

  “What if I get the munchies for human flesh?” I said. The thought repulsed me.

  “You won’t,” Dominic said. He squeezed my hand.

  “I hope the antidote will start working and kill the virus before it gets to that point,” she said.

  “What about Eva?”

  Rose’s silence said it all.

  “There’s got to be something we can do!” I said. “She’s my best friend.”

  “There may be something,” a voice said from somewhere. Everything seemed far away.

  “You mean a cure for Eva?”

  “If you can find the source, you may have a chance to find a permanent cure,” Slim told me. “Rose was able to fix up something for you because you’d only recently been infected. But for Eva to have those cravings, she must have been infected long ago. That concoction will only slow her progress, it won’t stop it. Not until we find out how she caught it.”

  My thoughts were jumbled. In the background “Rolling in the Deep,” by Adele, was playing on the jukebox. An idea occurred to me. “Dominic, what were the songs you sang? You know, when you were predicting in song? I think those songs were clues.”

  I grabbed a paper napkin and borrowed a pen from Flo. “What was the first song? ‘Crazy for You,’ right?”

  Dominic blushed. “I think that one may have been personal,” he said.

  I must have looked confused, because he leaned in and whispered, “That was the night we met, remember?”

  “Oh.” Now I was the one blushing.

  He ticked off the rest of the list and we all examined it.

  “‘Ant Music,’” Andy pointed out. “Didn’t Eva tell you that Edgar Love has an ant farm?”

  “But what about ‘Love Potion Number Nine’?” Raven asked. “Or is that another personal message, too?” She nudged her brother.

  “Oh, my god,” I said. “Love potion. It’s Edgar Love. Or his mom. They’ve been using their perfume to turn people into zombies. Eva got a special bottle of perfume from The Look of Love.”

  “Anybody else?” Flo asked.

  I nodded. “A bunch of girls got the perfume bottles, which was a raven with a silver beak.”

  Flo looked worried. “There could be a lot of infected girls out there, then.”

  “I don’t think they made very many bottles,” I finally said. “But I know who they gave them to.”

  “Do you think you can find Eva’s?” Slim asked. There was a thread of tension in his voice that told me we were almost out of time.

  Raven was already rummaging through Eva’s purse. “It’s not in here,” she said.

  “I’ll find it,” I said. “I have to. It’s probably in her bedroom.” I would do almost anything to save my best friend.

  “You don’t think her mom has noticed that there’s something wrong?” Dominic asked.

  “Probably,” I admitted. “They’ve always been close. But I can’t tell her the truth.”

  “We’re running out of options,” Flo said.

  Natalie said, “If you can get your hands on a bottle of that perfume, betwe
en my magic skills and Rose’s science expertise, we should be able to create an antidote.”

  “Dominic and Raven, you go with her,” Flo ordered. “Just in case.”

  Five minutes later, they hustled me to the car and we were on our way to Eva’s house. Raven sat in the back seat with me, just in case I tried to eat the driver.

  Raven walked with me to the door while Dominic waited in the car.

  My head was throbbing and I thought I was going to throw up, but I thought of Eva and managed to avoid hurling all over her front porch.

  Mrs. Harris answered the door. She had the same bright brown eyes and dark hair as Eva. “Why, hello, Jessica. Eva’s not here right now.”

  “I know,” I said. “I came over to ask if . . . if,” I felt myself sway, but Raven wrapped an arm around me and smiled at Mrs. Harris, while she tried to prevent me from slumping to the floor.

  “We wanted to know if Eva could spend the night at my house,” Raven said. “My aunt will be there and we’re going to rent movies.”

  “I would like to talk to your aunt first, but other than that, I don’t see any problem,” Mrs. Harris replied.

  “Eva asked us to pick up her PJs and stuff, if that’s okay,” I managed to say. “She’s off with Nurse Phillips, picking out the movies.”

  Mrs. Harris smiled at me. “You know what that means, don’t you?” she said. “Nothing but werewolves and zombies.

  I tried not to flinch when she said zombies.

  “You girls go ahead,” she continued. “You know the way, Jessica.”

  “This is interesting décor,” Raven commented.

  Eva’s room was lime green and purple, but I knew it was the mess Raven was talking about.

  “We’ll never find anything in here,” she said, staring at a mound of clothes in the corner.

  “Believe it or not, Eva has a system,” I told her.

  “Not,” Raven said.

  I pointed to a pile closest to her dresser. “That’s the newest stuff. Let’s check it. The perfume is either there or in her bathroom.”

  We went through the pile very carefully, but I didn’t find the black bottle with the silver beak.

  “Nothing,” I said.

  “Me, neither,” Raven said, and she sat back on her haunches and looked around the room. “Does Eva have a hidey-hole or anything?”

  “She hides her diary from Bethany,” I said.

  “I can see why,” Raven said wryly. “Do you know where it is?”

  “Ted Vicious!” I had already crossed to the enormous teddy bear that Eva had “redesigned” a few years ago. She’d carefully cut a hole in Ted Vicious and created a hiding place. She then pierced his ears and gave him a Mohawk and a patch over one eye.

  Her diary was gone, but in its place was the bottle we had been searching for. I held it up to the light. “There’s still a good amount left.”

  “Hopefully, it’ll be enough,” Raven said.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  “Wait a minute,” Raven replied. “We told Eva’s mom we were getting her stuff for a sleepover.”

  “Thanks for the reminder,” I said. “I need to call my mom.”

  Mom okayed the slumber party at Raven’s. “I have training the next morning,” I added. “And then we’re going to get something to eat. I might not be home until late.” Luckily, I’d never skipped curfew or given my mom anything to worry about, so she agreed readily.

  I was feeling better, but my thought process would suddenly go dark and I couldn’t think. “I hope Flo’s remedy starts working soon. My brain is all fuzzy.”

  We grabbed Eva’s overnight bag, said good night to Mrs. Harris, and headed to the car, where Dominic was singing along to the radio.

  He looked so cute sitting there that I suddenly wished that I wouldn’t turn zombie, not before he kissed me, anyway. Of course, that wasn’t likely to happen now, not when he knew I might nibble off his lips.

  We cruised by the diner and I carried the perfume bottle very gingerly inside. I didn’t relax until I’d put the perfume into Natalie’s hands.

  “I’m so glad you found it,” she said. “I’ll get to work on the antidote.”

  Eva was curled up in a booth. “How is she?” I asked Flo.

  “A little better, I think,” she said. “But you need to keep a close eye on her.”

  Dominic and Raven and I hauled Eva out to the car.

  I’d never been to Nurse Phillips’s house, but it wasn’t what I expected. It was a cute little one-story bungalow with a swing on the front porch. The living room was painted pale green and there was a lemon-colored couch practically covered in floral pillows.

  Raven seemed to read my mind as I looked around. “It’s not very rocker chick, is it?” she commented. “Aunt Katrina really loves flowers.”

  We walked down the hall to her room, which was decorated, in stark contrast to the rest of the house, in reds, blacks, and whites. There were no posters or photos on the wall, with the exception of a photo of a much younger Dominic and Raven with two adults, who I assumed were their parents. The woman in the photo looked just like Raven.

  “Is that your mom?” I asked.

  Raven didn’t look at the photo. “Yes,” she said shortly.

  I sat Eva down on the bed and took off her shoes before helping her into some jammy pants and an old Dawn of the Dead T-shirt. She was glassy-eyed and feverish, but at least she didn’t try to take a chunk out of me.

  She did, however, have screaming nightmares. Worst sleepover ever.

  Around midnight, there was a tap at the door. “Everybody decent?” Dom asked through the door.

  “C’mon in,” I said. “It’s not like anyone is sleeping, anyway.”

  He came in carrying a guitar. “I thought maybe a song would calm her down.” He sat on the floor by the bed and strummed gently on the guitar.

  He played her a lullaby I recognized from my childhood. Eva recognized it, too, because she snuggled back down in the bed and fell fast asleep.

  “Thanks,” I said softly. “I love that song. My mom used to sing it to me.”

  “Mine did, too,” he said. He stood. “It’s getting late. I’d better let you get to sleep yourself.”

  After he left, I watched Eva’s sleeping face. I had to figure out what was going on. I couldn’t let my best friend turn into a zombie.

  ***

  The next morning, Eva’s mom arrived early at Nurse Phillips’s house, to pick Eva up.

  We tried to stall her. “We were going to make waffles and then do our nails,” I said desperately.

  Eva was glassy-eyed and nonresponsive. “Eva,” her mom scolded her gently. “I can tell you were up half the night. I bet you girls didn’t sleep a wink.”

  “You have no idea,” Raven muttered quietly.

  “We’re going to visit my aunt in San Carlos,” Mrs. Harris said. “She’s in the hospital.”

  I let out a long unconvincing sneeze. “I think I’m coming down with something,” I said in a nasally voice.

  I nudged Raven and she caught on quickly. “Me, too.”

  “Gee, I hope Eva hasn’t caught it,” I said. “She was up sneezing and coughing half the night.”

  Mrs. Harris frowned. “My aunt is still weak,” she said. “Maybe it’s best if Eva stays here. I wouldn’t want her to spread any germs at the hospital.”

  That bought us a few hours.

  After Mrs. Harris left, Raven asked, “How are you feeling, Jessica?”

  “I think Flo’s nasty-tasting stuff actually worked,” I said. “I wish I’d known what was really going on with Eva. I would have force-fed her a gallon of it weeks ago.”

  “Tired,” Eva said.

  She looked terrible. “Maybe more sleep would do her good,” I said. “I’ll take her back to your room.”

  Raven nodded. “Maybe you should try to take a nap, too.”

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to,” I said.

  I led a docile Eva back t
o Raven’s room and tucked her in before climbing into the other bed.

  I must have fallen asleep, because the afternoon sun streamed through the window.

  I yawned and stretched and then checked out the other bed. Eva was a small lump under the covers.

  My stomach growled and I realized I was starving. “Eva, wake up,” I said. “Time to rise and shine.” I reached over to give her shoulder a shake, but my hand met pillows instead.

  “Eva!” I called, then called for her again. But she was gone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  My best friend had disappeared, and although we spent the rest of the day looking for her, we didn’t spot her anywhere. We finally gave up and everyone went home. I hoped that Mrs. Harris stayed at the hospital a long time.

  I couldn’t stand just sitting around waiting to hear what had happened to Eva, though, so I decided to go for a run. A nice long jog would give me time to think and work on conditioning at the same time.

  It was already dark, but I knew Nightshade like the back of my hand. I ran so long that I lost track of time, but finally stopped when I got a stitch in my side.

  I was near the park, where I could take a shortcut home. Although I usually avoided the park at night, it was getting late and my mom would be worried.

  I walked at a brisk pace. There were a lot of missing-pet signs up, but I attributed it to coyotes, or maybe a peckish vampire.

  I was in the middle of the park when my tattoo started to burn. I looked around, but I didn’t see anyone. Still, it made me nervous and I broke into a slow jog.

  Flo’s order to never go anywhere alone repeated over and over in my brain and I wanted to kick myself for being so stupid. The only thing to do now was to get out of the park and to somewhere public as soon as possible.

  The burning sensation continued and I heard footsteps behind me.

  I started to run and heard someone running behind me. I told myself that it was just a random jogger.

  Then I felt a tight grip on my arm. I wheeled around and took a fighting stance, but it was only Shannon.

  “Jessica, I’ve been calling you for five minutes,” she said. “Are you okay?”

  “J-just a little nervous,” I said. My heart rate started to slow at the sight of a familiar face. It dawned on me that Shannon was one of the Lovelies and a big fan of perfume. My tattoo burned even more than before.