Lela had already disappeared from sight; I had no idea where she was going. We headed for the town hall with Candi clone behind. She kept trying to dial out on her cell phone but there was no signal.
“Danny! Jack,” the doc was heading our way. “Where have you been?”
“Where have you been? Have you seen what’s happening?” I snapped.
A gunshot went off in the distance and we all jumped.
“We need to get off the street,” the doc said.
“We’re going to the town hall. Where are the vials?” I asked.
“Well hidden. Trust me; they won’t get their hands on them,” he said.
“Really? So how exactly are there more zombies walking around? Did you release it?”
He looked aghast, “No! Of course not. There’s an overturned truck on the edge of town. My guess is they were trying to transport them and they escaped.”
“We can debate this inside,” Jack snapped. I could see one of the hazmat guys in the distance.
The town hall was at the end of the road. There was a sign hanging on the front door which read: Closed for renovations. The door was unlocked.
I ushered the others inside. More gunshots came from the town center. I tried to see what they were shooting at, but they were too far away.
As I turned to go inside, I was blindsided by a man in an apron. He tried to grab me, but stumbled. As he went down, he sank his teeth into my upper thigh.
I screamed in pain trying to shake him off.
“Danny!” Jack cried. She shoved the guy hard and he rolled down the steps. I limped inside and collapsed on the floor. Jack locked the doors.
She helped me into the hall and propped me against the wall. The room was full of paint cans and scaffolding. The furniture was covered in drop cloths.
“Oh God, Danny. It bit you,” Jack said.
I had my hand pressed over the wound. She pulled it back to check it. I didn’t want to look; I’m not good with blood, especially my own.
“I’m so sorry,” Jack said, she was crying.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said. I was surprised to see her so upset, especially over me. Then I realized she thought I was going to change into one of those things. I opened my mouth to remind her that I’m immune, but then I figured I could milk it a little.
“I never thought it would go down like this,” I said. “There’s so much I didn’t get to do.”
“Don’t think about that.”
“How can I not? I don’t want to die with you hating me,” I said.
“I don’t hate you,” she said, surprised, “You just irritate the hell out of me.”
“Thanks, that’s a lot better,” I said.
She sighed, “I’m sorry.”
“Just promise me you’ll remember me fondly.”
She nodded, squeezing my arm.
The doc appeared with Candi behind him, “The other exit is locked too. What’s going on?”
“He was bitten,” Jack said.
The doc checked the bite, “It’s a flesh wound.”
“But he was bitten by one of those things,” she said. Candi backed away fast.
“Yeah, and he’s immune remember?” the doc said. There was frantic knocking on the front door and he hurried to check it out.
Jack’s face darkened, “You jerk!” she punched me hard in the arm.
“Ow! What happened to remembering me fondly?”
She walked away. I looked up to find Lela had returned along with an elderly woman dressed in her Sunday best. She wore a lavender colored dress and a matching jacket.
Lela had seen our exchange. I struggled to my feet, “Are you okay?” I asked.
She nodded, “There are more people like Frank. A lot more. What is going on?”
“That’s pretty obvious, dear,” the old lady said.
“It is?” I said.
“Yes, it’s like the good book says, this is the end of days.”
“Grandma!” Lela said.
“There’s no point in fighting it. But don’t worry, I’m prepared for this,” she pulled out a .50 caliber Desert Eagle from her purse.
“Oh my God, Grandma. You said you weren’t going to carry that anymore,” Lela cried.
“Your grandmother rocks,” I exclaimed.
“Don’t encourage her,” Lela said.
“Trust me we’re going to need the firepower.”
Candi was still fussing over her phone. Did she think she could just call the police and they would sort this out? They were in on it or at the very least they had stepped aside to let Breton’s men take over.
“Can someone tell me what’s going on? I mean what was wrong with that man?” Candi asked.
“He’s a zombie,” I said.
Her eyes widened, “I knew it. I knew something freaky was going on here.”
I noticed a blinking light on her phone. Was she recording this? It actually sounded like a good idea, it could help confirm our stories if we ever made it out of here. Or end up as some found footage like a cheesy horror movie.
“We need a plan,” Jack said.
“Is there a way out of town that they might not cover?” the doc asked Lela.
“There are ways, but there are miles of desert out there. If we don’t have a car then it’s pointless. And we couldn’t drive on any of the routes I know.”
“What about a vehicle that’s already outside town?” Candace said. “My tour bus broke down a couple of miles outside town. My driver went back out to fix it up. If we can get to it, we can get out of here.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, “You are Candi Sweet.”
“It’s Candace,” she muttered.
“Danny, stay on topic,” Jack said.
“Right, sorry.”
There was gunfire from outside, then someone started pounding on the door.
“They’ve found us.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jack
The wood in the door began to crack as they tried to bust their way in. Lela’s grandmother readied her gun, preparing to take them on. As badass as she looked with her gun, I doubted she would get off many shots before they shot her.
“Come on, we’ll go out the back entrance,” Dr. Kettering said.
Easing the door open, I looked out. The field behind the building was empty.
“Okay, let’s make a run for those trees,” I said.
We moved outside, checked both directions then took off running. Halfway to the trees, I heard Lela yell, “Wait!”
Looking back I saw her trying to get back into the town hall. Danny had a hold of her and was trying to pull her away.
“She went back in. I’m not leaving her,” Lela screamed.
I saw a muzzle flash from just inside the door, followed by shrieking and Lela’s grandmother cursing worse than a sailor. I thought they had captured her, but then she came running out the door. She moved fast for an old lady.
When two of the men emerged from the building, she fired another shot over her shoulder, causing them to throw themselves to the ground.
We reached the tree line.
“Stop right there!” one of the men yelled. He fired off a few rounds but I think it was just to scare us since none of them found their mark.
We needed to lose them before we headed out into the desert or there would be nowhere to hide out there.
As I ducked under a branch, I lost my footing and fell. I tried to get back up. I reached out to grab hold of something I could use to pull myself up. I grabbed someone’s pant leg.
I looked up and found a zombie. I screamed and scrambled back from her. This one was a woman. She had a huge chuck of flesh missing from her face.
She swiped a hand at me. Danny yanked me to my feet out of her reach.
A loud bang sounded close to my ear and a gaping hole appeared in the woman’s forehead. She dropped like a stone.
My ears rang from the blast as Gran tucked the gun back into her purse. The woman was
lethal.
“Oh my God, where are they coming from?” Candace exclaimed.
“Let’s keep going,” Dr. Kettering said.
We hurried on, coming to a small clearing in the woods. Two men with guns emerged from up ahead. We turned to go back the way we came, but the others had caught up to us too. We were surrounded.
Gran reached for her gun.
“Gran, don’t!” Lela cried.
One of the men grabbed for Gran, she pulled the gun out and the shot went wide. The two men on the other side of the clearing ducked. Danny punched the fourth guy.
“Run,” he yelled.
*
Lela
We ran, but they still had my grandmother. Danny had to drag me after him. I couldn’t leave her behind.
“Please, we can’t leave her,” I cried. She was the only family I had.
“We can’t, Lela, I’m sorry,” he said. “They won’t hurt her. They’ll just lock her up.”
I don’t know if I believed him or not, but I knew that if we went back then we would all be in trouble. Once we were safe, I would go to the Sheriff and get him to release her. It honestly wasn’t the first time she had spent time in a jail cell and it probably wouldn’t be the last.
We crossed a small bridge, where I used to come fishing as a kid. I knew we weren’t far from the edge of town now.
As we reached the other side, something moved to our right. A hand shot out of the mud and gripped my leg. I screamed as a man crawled up onto the bank from the river.
Danny started stomping on the man’s arm trying to get me free. He was blindsided by another man who tackled him to the ground.
“Danny,” I cried. Distracted, I momentarily forgot about the one holding my leg. In seconds, he had managed to move up the bank and I felt something pierce the skin on my ankle. I wrenched my foot free and fell on my butt.
There was a small cut on my ankle. I wasn’t sure if it was from teeth or nails. What was it Danny said? It’s spread through being bitten? I didn’t want to end up like Frank or Jarry.
Danny flipped the guy off him and leapt to his feet.
The soldiers broke through the trees behind us. As they took aim at the zombies, we ran for it. I heard gunshots, but I kept running.
When we stopped to catch our breath, I checked the wound again. It was barely bleeding; maybe it wasn’t a bite or a scratch. Maybe I just scraped it on something.
I caught Jack staring and turned so she couldn’t see my ankle. She approached me, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I got snagged on a branch is all.”
She glanced down at the cut. I could see fear in her eyes, she didn’t believe me. I felt panic race through me.
“It’s nothing, really. Please don’t say anything. I don’t want to worry anyone.”
She nodded hesitantly.
“Come on, we need to keep going,” the doctor said.
Chapter Seventeen
Jack
We stuck to the outskirts of town as we made our way towards the desert. Lela was still upset about her grandmother, but she knew that we couldn’t go back for her.
With any luck they wouldn’t hurt her, just lock her up for now. They had bigger things to worry about.
So did we. I couldn’t stop looking at Lela’s ankle. I didn’t know if it was a scratch or a bite or whether it made a difference, but if she turned then we would have to stop her.
I considered telling the others, but we were facing enough without this too. Maybe it was just a scrape. Maybe she wouldn’t turn. At the moment, I knew that was just wishful thinking. Danny was sticking close to Lela. He seemed to really like her. She could do worse, I guessed. I don’t know why I felt jealous. He was a nice guy and Lela wasn’t handling this well.
We just had to keep moving and get to the bus. We still had a lot of ground to cover. Plus we didn’t know where the driver was. He could be a zombie or he could have driven off after everything went to hell.
“So why are you out here in the middle of nowhere?” I asked Candace. I was trying to distract myself from thinking about Lela’s wound.
“I was on my way to a gig on the west coast. That’s out the window now. I need to get my phone working again so I can tell my manager what happened.”
“You really think any of that matters anymore?”
“My career? My life? Yeah, I think it matters,” she snapped.
“We’re surrounded by the walking dead. If this spreads beyond this town, you will have a lot more to worry about than a concert.”
She rounded on me, “Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?”
“Wow, the tabloids were right about you. You really are a…” I stopped myself before I finished that sentence.
“A what?” she said.
“Pain,” I said, although that wasn’t my first choice.
“You don’t know anything about me. All that crap in the tabloids is just that. Crap. And this? This is a blip. The government will come in and clean it up and I doubt it will even show up on the news, but I have the proof, right here.” She held up her camera phone.
“Oh you’re a conspiracy theory nut too?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know what’s going on around here. You and your idiot friend. What’s really happening? Government testing? Terrorism? Or are you just some science psycho who cooked something up in the basement?”
“I’m a computer programmer. I didn’t cause this.”
She gave me a disgusted look and walked off.
What a bitch. I can’t believe I ever liked her music.
*
Danny
Stopping to peer around every corner was becoming tiring, but it wasn’t just zombies we had to watch out for. Back in the forest had been too close. I wasn’t relying on the fact that they wanted me alive. Out here in this chaos, it was too easy to get caught in the crossfire.
We had reached the edge of town where it turned to desert. Lela stopped to rest on a rock.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded, but she was red faced and sweating. I felt bad for her. She was worried about her grandmother and had to deal with the locals turning into zombies too.
“I’m going to move closer to the road and take a look,” I said.
“Be careful,” Jack said.
I kept low in the scrub brush as I went. About twenty yards from the road, I spotted men with guns. A lot of them. The road was closed off and they had a spike strip across the road in case anyone tried to get through.
They had clear line of sight on the far side of the road, but on this side there were obstacles. I could see two soldiers moving my way.
I hurried back to the others.
“We gotta go guys. They’re heading our way.”
As I got back to the rocks, the others seemed to have surrounded Lela. She was standing with her back to me, swaying on the spot. She looked like she was ready to collapse.
“What’s going on? Lela, are you okay?”
Her legs buckled and I caught her.
“No, Danny don’t,” Jack cried.
“What do you mean? Something’s wrong with her,” I tried to lower her carefully onto the ground.
“She was bit,” Jack said.
“What? No she wasn’t.” I looked around for any sign of a zombie, but there wasn’t one.
“It was back in the forest. She didn’t know if it was a scrape or a bite,” Jack admitted.
“And you didn’t tell us?” the doc snapped.
“Stop it. She’s fine. It’s just heatstroke or something,” I said. She couldn’t have been bit.
I laid her flat and grabbed my pack to get her some water.
“Danny,” Jack said.
“No,” I snapped. “I just need to get her some water.”
I finally found the bottle in the bottom of the bag. There wasn’t much left.
“Danny.”
I wasn’t listening to her anymore. I turned to Lela to find her
back on her feet. She was swaying slightly, but she was up so that had to be a good sign.
“Oh good. I have water,” I said, holding the bottle out to her.
She stared blankly at the bottle then she retched violently. Black bile slid down her chin onto the ground.
When she looked back at me, her eyes had clouded over. My brain stopped working for a moment as I tried to take it in. She turned.
“Lela?” I said.
She took a step towards me, hand outstretched. Reaching for me.
“Danny, get back,” Jack said.
“We, uh, we need to do something. Doc? Can’t you give her some of my blood?”
“It doesn’t work like that Danny,” he said.
“Well, do something!” I yelled.
The noise seemed to aggravate Lela. She made a weird rasping noise in her throat and staggered closer. This was my fault. I should have known she was bitten. I should have done something.
The thought of killing her was awful. I didn’t think I had it in me.
Candace appeared from the right. With a cry of rage, she brought a rock down on Lela’s head.
“NO!” I screamed, as Lela’s knees went out from under her.
Candace stood clutching the bloody rock, staring at Lela’s body.
“What did you do?” I screamed at her.
Kneeling beside Lela, I took her hand to check for a pulse. She didn’t have one. I reached out and gently closed her eyes, feeling sick.
“Danny, she was already gone,” Jack said.
“Save it,” I snapped. I walked away; I couldn’t look at her right now. If she had told us sooner, maybe we could have done something to save Lela.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was the doc, “There was nothing we could have done. I need a lab to recreate the antivirus. It could take weeks to get it right.”
I turned on him, “Well maybe if you hadn’t helped invent the damn virus in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this mess! You claim to be so against it, why didn’t you do something sooner? You could have destroyed it. Or gone to the media about it, but you did nothing. This is all your fault.”
He looked at the ground, “If I could have destroyed it at the time, then I would have. They didn’t give me the chance.”
After Zombie Series (Book 2): Before Page 11