Serena Rogue (Book 1): Zombie Infestation

by Bushman, LJ

  He chuckled; the sound sent shivers up my spine. “We have our orders. They involve you, pain, torture, and obedience. That’s all you need to know.”

  “Shut the hell up, Gene,” Andrea demanded. “She’s not a civilian, despite her pedigree. She’s a soldier. She came back and released those not directly involved with the fight. You’re more of a civilian than she is.” She looked him up and down like he was dog shit on her shoe and she searched for the fastest way to dislodge it.

  “But,” he sputtered, totally ignoring me now.

  I took advantage of their inattentiveness and did a quick check to make sure the plait of my hair still covered the knife’s scabbard enough to be missed in a search. It was.

  “But nothing,” she snapped, the scathing tone in her voice harsh enough for me to feel the lash from where I stood. “She has more bravery in her little finger than you do in your whole body. She faced down a room full of armed people, twice now, to save someone else. That kind of loyalty and bravery can’t be bought.” She waved her hands in frustration.

  I was flattered, despite my personal opinion of her. It meant something to have the enemy’s respect. While trying to evaluate the pros and cons of having these two at odds with each other, the first band of mercenaries came through the door. They were relaxed; the alarm had yet to be sounded. One look at me with my gun aimed at Andrea and Robins sitting across from me and they went into full alert.

  I had to admire their skills. Soldiers to the bone. Only question was, where did their loyalties lie? From what I’d seen, they had multiple layers of involvement, some knew the true nature of the Resurrection Vaccine; others, faithful believers like my erstwhile guards earlier. I had a billion questions all of the sudden. Wish I’d thought of them earlier.

  Setting my gun on the floor, I straightened and raised my hands. I kicked the gun toward them. Immediately, two men rushed me and turned me around to face the worktable I’d been leaning against. They did a quick pat down.

  They found the empty holster and my other knives. But not the one attached to my choker. Sweet. I may get out of here alive.

  Gene strode over, an ugly look on his face. He backhanded me with his pistol. My teeth met each other and clanked, and my cheek stung. I went with the punch, taking some of the power out of it, but it still hurt. A lot, damn it. One thing about fighting zombies, there wasn’t a wuss among them.

  “Gene,” Andrea snapped. “You will not touch her unless I give an express order to do so. Is that clear?” She got in his face. Her voice was level, but lethal.

  “Who put you in charge of the prisoner?” Yeah, Mr. Special Fuck didn’t like women in charge over him. Dumb man. Should’ve kept his mouth shut.

  Andrea punched his jaw, grabbed his arm, and then proceeded to break his wrist, disarming him in a smooth move. The icing on his cake came when she kneed him in the groin. I grimaced reflectively. Ouch.

  “I’m in charge of this whole operation. My boss has other concerns to concentrate on. You fuck this up for me and you won’t live to talk about it. We have a mole and a new recruit within the FBI. You’re expendable.” Her voice didn’t raise an iota. Impressive control.

  If I was any judge, and I liked to think I was, he was on the short list of expendables. Almost out of usefulness from her point of view. I might’ve felt sorry for him, but my cheek still throbbed. Asshat was getting what’s coming to him. If she didn’t do it, I would. The tangy grit of my blood mixed with bits of my cheek coated my tongue and I spit. That brought Andrea’s attention back to me. Good. I didn’t know how trigger-happy her goons were and wanted the gun trained on me pointed elsewhere.

  Andrea walked up to me, seemingly unconcerned about what I might do. Her next words reminded me why we were never going to be best friends.

  “Okay, men. Tie her to the special chair.”

  Chapter 16

  Somehow, I didn’t think I’d like whatever made the chair special. The guy closest to me smiled like it was Christmas in Hell and he loved every minute of it.

  “Keep your hands up. Turn around. Now move!” He kept his weapon trained on my back while the other guard led the way. If I could be certain my kids were safely over the border, I’d take his gun from him. My hand-to-hand training had taught me how.

  My ego was bruised, offended he didn’t find me enough of a threat to keep a little distance. Huh. Go figure. The feeling made me want to risk escaping—grab his gun and shoot everyone—but no, I needed to buy time for Joseph. Every minute mattered. The farther away they made it, the better. Besides, an escape attempt might work if they weren’t super soldiers, but they were. My personal space reeked of the virus and testosterone wafting off their bodies.

  The mention of the special chair caused a sexual excitement in them that hit me so hard, my nausea erupted, skin prickling as if a colony of ants decided to use me as an expressway. I didn’t think the special chair was so named because we were all going to have a nice orgy. No, they were hyped up over the promise of violence. Obviously, a turn-on for these goons.

  A knot of fear formed in my belly. I would be at their mercy for as long as it took Joseph to mount a rescue. If he could. Between the slow, stuck-in-the-mud pace of bureaucracy and the mole or moles the organization had in the FBI’s El Paso office, it could take a few days. Or a week. Or never. The blood drained from my face at the thought of a week or more in the hands of these people.

  As if I didn’t have enough to worry about, my brain decided to cough up another problem. If they tortured me, they would learn I healed extra fast and believe I was infected. Since it wouldn’t show in my blood work, they may make new plans for me. Plans that didn’t include me getting away and writing their story.

  Fuck me. I nearly gave in to the temptation to grab the guard’s gun and make a break for it. But as long as they focused on me, they weren’t mounting an offensive to keep my kids from escaping Mexico. Only Andrea and Robins knew they’d escaped. I felt Robins’ hate-filled eyes as they bored a hole in the back of my head.

  After the blatant disobedience he’d showed, I highly doubted Andrea would walk away until her goons had me safely tied up. Then again, she might also be worried I’d try something. She no longer underestimated me. She evaluated me. The guard took a risk being this close to me. Maybe Andrea waited to see what I’d do about it.

  My ego restored a little. However much these dumbasses dismissed me, she didn’t.

  We entered a small room. The lights were twice as bright as any I used at home; my highly sensitive eyes couldn’t take it. A sharp piercing pain lanced through my eyes and lodged in my head. I stopped and held up my hands to cover my eyes.

  Son of a bitch. I doubted they’d let me have aspirin. Even if they did, I couldn’t take it—I’d have no idea what it really was.

  The guard at my back roughly pushed me forward. “Move it, bitch. In the chair.”

  I stumbled toward the chair he’d indicated with his rifle. My eyesight was back, but my headache wouldn’t go away until the lights did. And if I got some rest. Ha. These guys would be all over letting me sleep. After they showed me who’s the boss.

  One guard held me in the chair while his partner strapped me into it. They put my wrists in braces bolted to the heavy metal chair. When they moved to my feet, I seriously considered kicking them. I gave in, snap-kicking both of them in the face and twisting slightly to kick one of them in the throat.

  The first guard smashed my cheek with the butt end of his rifle. Judging by the pain and the sound, he’d fractured my cheekbone. It was worth it. His nose bled, and a bruise bloomed on his throat already. If he hadn’t stepped back at the last second, my kick would’ve crushed his windpipe. The blow wouldn’t kill him, but it’d take a while for the zombie virus to regenerate his infected ass.

  I’d missed the neck of the second guard, he’d seen me move on the first, but his nose looked broken. The black eyes he’d sport for a while would look good on him.

  Despite the pain in my ch
eek, I smiled. “If it makes you feel any better, I did the same thing to the FBI agents who kidnapped me.”

  “You cunt,” he yelled, raising his gun to shoot me. He literally growled, a ferocious gleam in his eyes.

  Shit, Serena. Maybe you should’ve kept your damn fool mouth shut. I prepared for the pain I was about to experience.

  “Enough!” Andrea stepped into the room. “You brainless morons are lucky she didn’t kill you. If anyone could kill your asses strapped in a chair, it’s Serena. I let her hurt you to teach you a lesson. Quit underestimating your adversaries. Carrying an automatic weapon doesn’t make you invincible. Neither does the Resurrection Vaccine. Now get out before I teach you a further lesson for disobeying me. She wasn’t to be touched until I said so.”

  I watched with interest as both men turned stark white, bright as bleached paper. Fascinating. They underestimated me because they thought they were invincible, not because I was a woman. Andrea had obviously taught them to respect the female penchant for violence. They were also unaware that although it would be hard to kill them, they would come back as zombies.

  Andrea crouched and latched on the braces around my ankles. After the guards’ reaction, I didn’t think of pulling anything on her. I was more afraid of her than I’d been of anyone else in my life. I tried to hold it back, she could smell fear as well as I. She looked into my eyes and smiled. Her smile was beautiful and her power dragged me in. I shut my eyes and broke contact. Not that it mattered. The room reeked of my fear.

  “I see I’ve finally earned your respect,” she said in the same tone I’d heard women talking about the color of shoes on sale—happy, excited, a desire to give in and buy them all.

  “I wish I knew exactly what did it. Doesn’t matter. I’m happy you fear me before the process started.” She put a bell under my left hand. “Hit this when you need to use the restroom. I’ll send someone in to take you, if you promise to behave.” She stared at me another moment. I concentrated on tamping down a new wave of fear.

  In a fair fight, I was more than a match for her. But tied down at her mercy? Yeah, I’d behave. At least until Joseph rescued me. Then I’d be getting some payback.

  “I’ll be good. For now. But just remember what happened to the man who tried to rape my babysitter. You should go check out the house, by the way. I left you a few presents.” Thinking of the knife slicing through the man’s brain after I caught him abusing my friend helped to center my nerves.

  “I see you found your voice. Good. I don’t want you completely broken. I’m looking forward to doing that myself. Alas, poor Gene is hankering for a turn, but he lacks the finesse required for what we want from you. As it is, those facial wounds are going to have to heal before we can let you loose.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, you’re going to just let me walk. Right.”

  “Oh, we are. But when you leave here, you’ll be firmly under my control.”

  “I doubt it. I’m rebellious that way, don’t like people who bully others.” She might scare the hell out of me, but I’d never do what she wanted once I was out of there. She had to know that, so what’s her game? “And look what happened to the men who kidnapped my kids. You really should go check it out. Then you’ll see what’ll happen to anyone you send in here again.”

  “We won’t make that mistake again. It only infuriates you and makes you uncompromising. Quite the opposite of most people. Normally, people become malleable when we have their children. I find you fascinating. Maybe one day we can be friends.”

  “Lady, are you for real?”

  Her tone of voice really hadn’t changed. Panic beat at me. She really believed I would be pliant to whatever she wished. What in holy hell did she have up her sleeve?

  “Now, no name calling.”

  “What is it about me that makes you think I’ll do whatever you say? Is it the fact I killed your men? Shot you in the knee? What?” Frustration gnawed at my gut. None of this made sense.

  “No. Those things will make your downfall all the more enjoyable. I have something extraordinary planned for you—after I’m done torturing you and making you pay for your bad behavior.”

  “That’s so trite, Andrea. You have your ways? You’ll make me pay? Really? I’m supposed to be afraid of that?” I felt trapped in a low-budget film with sub-rate actors.

  “No, I guess not. You’re special.” She smiled at me with a gentleness mocking the hard look in her eyes. She was trying to play me, soften me up before dealing the blow. Like that would work.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I was beyond exasperated. My plan might backfire on me. It had made sense at the time, but now I wished I’d left with everyone else.

  “You had a run-in with a couple of FBI agents a few weeks ago. How did they manage to capture you?” she asked with that same sweet smile. That smile scared me more than the look in her eyes. She was demented.

  “How do you know about that?” I demanded. As if I was in a position to do so.

  Apparently, the same thought ran through her head. She threw her head back and laughed at me. Scowling, I wished for a weapon—and my hands free to use it.

  “We know, darling. We know. Now answer the question.”

  “They drugged me with something,” I said resentfully. “But not before I blackened a couple of eyes and broke a nose,” I couldn’t help adding.

  “I bet they were surprised at the writer mom getting a couple hits in, weren’t they?”

  I didn’t answer, simply stared at her. It made me uneasy knowing she found out about the meeting. It made the idea that someone was out there helping me seem less and less likely.

  She sighed, and then answered my original question. “I know they were upset. They grumbled about it in their report like siblings tattling to mommy. The drug they used, it’s not a typical knock-out drug, is it?” She stood square in front of me and leaned over, her hands on my forearms.

  “No, it wasn’t,” she answered her own question.

  Her face invaded my personal space. I resisted the instinctive reaction to back away. It wasn’t like I’d get far. The movement would only embarrass me further.

  “It’s something we developed here, in this lab. I’m very good at what I do.”

  Okay, that answered one question. This was the right place to track down a sample of the knock-out drug. But what did any of it have to do with my compliance once I’m free? I knew she wanted me to ask, but I was feeling stubborn. She obviously wanted to tell me anyway. Andrea enjoyed bragging. Or maybe she liked having a female to brag too since she didn’t respect men.

  She stared, her eyes boring into my head like they could see into my brain and pull out every nuance of my thoughts and feelings. If I ever needed a reminder that the general populace needed help against her kind, this was it. I was immune to her. Mostly. Apparently, I had to work at it for those infected with the Ultimate virus. A normal person wouldn’t be able to resist the power in her stare.

  As my silence continued, she raised an eyebrow. Andrea stood up straight and looked down at me, considering something. Curiosity pricked at me, but I wouldn’t ask. I might not like the answer.

  “I’ve personally developed another drug, based on the success of the knock-out drug. I call it Downtime.”

  “Another drug?” Oh, just peachy keen-o. Another thing to worry about in the fight against these zombie monsters in human clothing.

  “Yes. This one works to make the person malleable to specific commands.”

  “Sounds dangerous. What if the wrong person gives them a command? Then what’re you going to do? Give them counter commands until steam comes out their ears? I’m more impressed with your knock-out drug,” I said.

  “You’re such a spitfire. Breaking the strong ones is so much more riveting for me. This drug works a lot like hypnosis works on the masses,” she continued as if she hadn’t just said she planned to break me. “While under the influence of this new drug, I can train the mind of whomever I want to do what I wa
nt, when I want.”

  “That’s a lot of ‘I wants’. Hasn’t anyone told you the old saying? Want in one, shit in the other and see which fills up faster? Because that’s where I see this going.” No way she’d developed mind control drugs for the Infected. Right?

  A frown finally crossed her face. Good. My mother always said I could try the patience of a saint. She didn’t find it funny when I told her, suffering was what made a person a saint and maybe I was put on Earth for making saints. I used to be a bit of a snot. Who was I kidding? I still qualified.

  “You’re a real smartass. You’ll see. It takes a few doses to become effective, but we’ll get there. In the meantime, my friends and I are going to make sure you remember your stay here.”

  No doubt they would. I knew her old pals would be more than happy to stick the screws in and turn them. “The sourness in my disposition isn’t due to the wonderfulness of my position. I’m quite confident you’ll make my stay here memorable. Just remember, I’ll pay you back.” If I lived through the ordeal.

  “Bravado will get you nowhere but hurt. My men aren’t as tolerant or forgiving of sarcastic humor as I am. But, time for talk is over. I’m sure your cheek is feeling better compared to how it felt when you first got hit. It seems to be healing at an alarming rate for a human. You’re infected with the virus. How have you convinced the military otherwise?” She narrowed her eyes. “You can’t cheat those tests. They don’t leave you alone for a minute after they’ve verified your identity. Fascinating.”

  She slapped my injured cheek. Hard.

  My head snapped to the side. My eyesight swam. Shit. That hurt. While I blinked to bring my eyes in focus, she slapped my other cheek. Now I felt dizzy and sick. Fuck. She’d barely started and I was this sick? It was going to be a long night. God help me if I remained here for a week.

  My head lolled around like a drunk in his favorite bar. I tried to speak, but couldn’t at first. I finally regained the use of my tongue. “Is that all you got?”