The Zombie Chronicles - Book 3 - Deadly City (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series)

by Peebles, Chrissy

“A mission of love, huh? Is that why I’m tied up?” she asked sarcastically.

  “We couldn’t let you rat us out,” Jackie continued. “If you’d run off flapping your tongue to this mayor of yours, it would have been the end of Val. We’d have been arrested, and we wouldn’t be able to find Val or Tahoe…er, uh…Sam.”

  “Sam is not a thief!” she wailed. “You’re the ones tying people up! He’s a better person than any of you will ever be!”

  Really? I tried hard to remain calm and to keep from rolling my eyes.

  “If you don’t believe me, ask her!” The housekeeper pointed at an empty corner.

  “Great. Hallucinations, like all the others,” Nick said. “She keeps snapping in and out of reality. Try to keep her focused and lucid.”

  “We don’t care what his intentions were, and we’re not out for revenge. We just want one vial so we can save our friend,” Jackie said. “I bet you’d do just about anything to save someone you love.”

  “Don’t hurt him,” she said. “Ow! Gosh, it hurts!” she suddenly screamed, her brow furrowing as she winced with pain. “Hey, can I get some Tylenol or something? My head hurts so bad!”

  “Sorry, but we don’t have any,” Lucas said. “I wish we did.”

  “Sam’s a good guy,” she continued. “He’ll give you that vial. Just ask him.”

  Yeah, fat chance, I thought. If he was such a nice guy, he wouldn’t have taken off with it in the first place. The girl was so naïve to be taken in by Tahoe’s charms. “That’s all we want.”

  “He lives on the north side of town in a yellow house on Elm Street. I’ll take you there.”

  Nick shook his head. “Absolutely not. The second we leave, you’ll start screaming and run away. Then we’ll be screwed.”

  Lucas tried to smooth it over. “He can’t risk his sister’s life on the word of a stranger. We hope you understand.” He pasted on his most sincere smile. “We’ll let you go soon though. That’s a promise.”

  The housekeeper glared at Lucas. “Ask all you want, but I’m not giving you his address.” She then turned to look to the vacant corner of the room, as if something had gotten her attention. “I know! I said I’m not gonna tell them! Sheesh!”

  “I gotta know one thing,” Nick said, meeting the stubborn girl’s gaze. “Why are they bringing zombies into Kingsville?”

  Her eyes bulged, like something from a horror movie, which the whole experience was turning out to be. “Wouldn’t you love to know?”

  “We ran into Lucy. She told us this town has all kinds of secrets,” I said. “She said her friend was murdered. Why don’t you tell us what you know? We already know this town is up to no good. It’s no secret that something awful’s going on here.”

  An evil grin spread across her lips.

  Lucas handed the girl a bottled water. “Are they hurting strangers who seek shelter in your city?”

  She shot me the most creepy smile I’d ever seen. “Yep…and you’re next.” Then she began to laugh wickedly, like that pea soup-spitting chick on The Exorcist.

  I ducked as she suddenly threw the bottle at me, almost hitting my head. “What the heck?”

  “Why is Dean next?” Claire asked.

  “Not just him. All of you,” she said in a rapid, lisping voice. “You’re all gonna die! You’re all gonna die! Die, die, die, die, die! And guess what. There’s no escape.” She sang the words out in a mocking way, as if she was possessed. I was beginning to wonder if we hadn’t died and gone to hell somewhere along the way, because there seemed to be demons lurking in everyone we met.

  “So they’re stealing people and bringing in zombies. What does that mean? And where’s Val?” I asked.

  “If your sister wasn’t shot on sight, they probably took her to the place with all the others, so they could play with her! Playtime! Playtime!”

  “To play?” I asked.

  She cocked her head, and her eyes seemed to bulge even more if that was humanly possible. “I know every single little thing they’re gonna do to you,” she hissed.

  “What?” Lucas asked in a calm voice.

  “You’re all gonna die! You’re all gonna die! Die, die, die, die, die!” she screeched in the most demonic voice I’d ever heard, something no Hollywood soundstage could replicate.

  Nick touched his chin, unfazed by her chilling voice. “Well, I, for one, would like to know how I’m gonna die. If you’d care to elaborate, that’d be fantastic.”

  “Stop!” she yelled before she gripped her head and squeezed her eyes shut, then suddenly slumped over.

  I gasped. “Is she okay?”

  Jackie felt her neck with her fingers. “She’s got a strong pulse. I think she just passed out.” She shot Lucas and Nick a look. “Lucy was complaining of headaches too.”

  “So was the nurse who examined me,” I said. “She blamed it on migraines and got really ticked off when I suggested she lie down for a bit.”

  “Headaches, huh? Hmm,” Claire said.

  “What is it, Claire?” Jackie asked.

  “I think infected is the right word after all. These people are sick with some kind of virus,” she suggested. “Something’s spreading in this town…and there’s no CDC to call.”

  “Let’s just hope we don’t catch whatever it is,” Lucas said. “We’ve all survived SARS, anthrax, swine flu, mad cow disease, and bird flu. I’m in no mood to go to my grave from zombie-itis.”

  “You two might be onto something. I think they’re all turning,” Nick said.

  Lucas shook his head. “No, this is something else. Their eyes aren’t turning white, and their skin isn’t peeling whatsoever. They’re not even green.”

  “The virus has mutated before,” Nick said. “Remember when all this first happened? It turned everyone into a zombie instantly. Then, later on, it took five days to complete the process.”

  “Well, we know there’s a lab,” Lucas said. “We also know they’re bringing in zombies to experiment on. I think an experiment got out of control, and now it’s affecting everyone in this town.”

  “Does it really matter?” Jackie asked. “Both theories suck, and neither one makes us any safer. Either the townspeople are turning into zombies or—”

  Claire cut in. “Or they’re being infected by an experimental virus from the lab?”

  I swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump that was growing in my throat. Not only did we have to deal with the crazy townspeople bringing in zombies and kidnapping people, but now there was a possible outbreak to contend with.

  “I say we find that lab,” Claire said. “How much you wanna bet we’ll find Val there?”

  Lucas nodded. “I agree.”

  “I say we go after the cure first,” Jackie said. “That way, we can give it to her the second we find her.”

  Nick nodded. “Let’s look for Tahoe first and get those vials and we’ll make him tell us where the lab is.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” I said. “I just hope we’re not already contaminated.”

  “Contaminated?” Nick laughed.

  “You know what I mean—infected.”

  “Think about it,” Lucas said. “We didn’t turn the first time because we’re not the right blood type. We’re immune.”

  “You mean like these people?” I retorted. “Because they survived the initial outbreak too.”

  “Let’s just try to stay positive,” Jackie said. “Let’s get moving. The faster we can get the heck out of this town, the better.”

  I opened the door, knowing it was useless to argue. None of us really had any idea what was going on. I just hoped we could make it out of there alive—and not infected. “Let’s go,” I said in a huff, ready to get the awful show on the road.

  Chapter 5

  We found Elm Street rather quickly and drove slowly past the houses in the neighborhood.

  Nick pointed at a yellow house. “I think that’s it. It’s the only yellow one. I hope our Merry Maid wasn’t bluffing back th
ere. Last thing I wanna do is step into a real, live Nightmare on Elm Street.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said. “Even if she is, all we have to do is ask people where Sam and Lucy live. It’s a small town. Somebody would eventually tell us.”

  “True. Tahoe can’t hide, now that we know his true identity.” Nick parked the truck down the street by a giant oak tree.

  Right. As if we aren’t gonna stick out like a sore thumb no matter where we park and who we ask, I thought. Everybody knows everybody in this place, and they know we’re outsiders. All things considered, I would have rather taken my chances with Freddy Krueger than with zombies and some unidentified flying virus, but I really didn’t have a choice.

  Nick and I decided to go check out the house, thinking we might see him through a window. As I glanced up at the stars, a cool breeze blew over me, making me realize that at least some things in the world had not been tainted by all the nastiness going on, on the surface of our handicapped planet. I peered in through the lit windows but couldn’t see anything.

  “We’re gonna hafta invite ourselves in, little bro,” Nick said.

  I let out a long breath to clear my head and calm my beating heart, then knocked on the big, wooden front door.

  A man answered. He looked just like Tahoe, only younger and clean shaven. Up close, though, I knew it was him.

  In an instant, Nick burst through the door, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. “Where’s our bag, you maggot?” he yelled.

  I couldn’t believe we had found the dirt-bag, but I was happy for the break—glad to finally be making some progress. Clenching my fists, I took a deep breath. Nick better move it, because nobody wants to pound that guy more than me!

  A woman with blonde hair raced down the stairs. “What are you doing?” Lucy yelled. “Leave him alone!”

  “Lucy,” I said, “you’ve no idea who you’re married to.”

  “Wh-what’s going on?” she shouted at Tahoe, stuttering in confusion and occasionally moving her hand to her head to apply pressure to her aching temples. “Baby, do you know these guys?”

  He shot her a look. “Yep. Dean and Nick.”

  “I met ‘em at the bar,” she said. “How do you know them?”

  “Go upstairs,” he barked. “I’ll handle this.”

  “But, babe, I—”

  “Do as I say!” he demanded.

  Lucy inched toward me. “Please don’t hurt him,” she begged.

  I still couldn’t believe she was married to him. Had we figured it out earlier, we would’ve already had the vials before Val escaped from the hotel room, but nobody in that town wanted to talk—except for the maid, who was eager to rat us out.

  “Sam’s harmless. Let him go,” Lucy pleaded. “Please!” she wailed, then grabbed her head again and nearly keeled over from the pain.

  I rolled my eyes. He had cleaned up pretty good, with a fresh shave and haircut, but underneath all that, he was still the same little pilfering, lying weasel who’d sentenced Val to certain death with his greed. Trusting him had been our biggest mistake. “Harmless? The man tried to kill my sister!”

  “What? No!” she yelled. “My Sam would never do a thing like that. Tell them, baby.”

  Tahoe dropped his gaze. “I told you to go upstairs,” he muttered, looking at the floor.

  Lucy turned toward me, a mask of confusion washing over her face. “So this is the guy you were looking for all along?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “You said you hadn’t seen anyone matching his description.”

  “You mentioned a scruffy beard. My Sam doesn’t wear his hair all sloppy like that,” Lucy reasoned, defending herself and her husband.

  “I cleaned up before I got here,” Tahoe admitted. “I found a house to crash in for the night and shaved there.”

  That explained why the tracker was still while we were having our sleepover in the gym, and it also explained why no one in the town knew of any man with a bushy beard, like the one we were describing. When he’d been with us, he’d had long hair and a thick mustache and beard, but clearly, the man wanted to look good for his homecoming, to impress his wife. Unfortunately, his blatant and selfish disregard for Val’s life and our wellbeing didn’t impress me much at all.

  “How did you find me anyway?” Tahoe said through clenched teeth.

  “If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” Nick said, not at all sounding as if he was joking.

  Lucy spun toward me. “Wait…my husband is the guy you were planning to stay with?”

  I shook my head. “Nope. Sorry about that little fib, but we’ve been trying to track down the slime-ball who snatched our bag of vials—the vials that might save my sister’s life.”

  Lucy yanked Tahoe’s arm. “You stole those vials you showed me? Why?”

  He let out a long breath. “You know why. I did it for us.”

  That comment must’ve pissed Nick right off, because he slammed Tahoe back into the wall with a fierce thud.

  “Don’t hurt him!” Lucy yelled again. “Please!”

  “Don’t worry. We wouldn’t lower ourselves to the slime level your husband has. We don’t go around hurting people—even guilty ones who deserve it,” Nick said. “Just give us back our bag, and we’ll leave. It’s as simple as that.”

  Tahoe was no match against my muscular, military-trained brother, and both he and Lucy knew it.

  “We’re history, as soon as your hubby gives back what he took from us, what’s rightfully ours,” I reiterated. I hated being part of any of it. I almost felt like a drug dealer breaking into somebody’s house to steal drugs. But, darn it, the world had changed, and we needed those vials badly—not to mention they were ours in the first place.

  “You have five seconds to tell us where the bag is,” Nick said, “or I’m gonna show you what big hands like mine can do to a scrawny neck like yours.”

  Tahoe gasped, and Lucy screamed. Hmm. Nick’s playing his role a little too well here. I might just have to take back Claire’s Academy Award and give it to my brother. The two of them can fight it out on the red carpet, I mused, imagining that would be a sight to see—and probably something Nick wouldn’t have minded at all, since it was obvious he had a thing for Claire.

  Nick didn’t mess around and began his countdown. “Five…four…three…two…” His face was red, anger boiling in his eyes. He held Tahoe up against the wall, choking him, and for a moment, in spite of his promise not to hurt anyone, I feared he just might kill him.

  “They’re in the closet!” Lucy yelled to spare her husband’s life. “Down in the basement.”

  Nick released his tight grip on Tahoe’s throat.

  Lucy turned toward her husband. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice wavering.

  Tahoe nodded and coughed. “But we…I…we need those vials,” he said between gasping breaths.

  “We only need one, and you have a vial at the lab, right?”

  He nodded again.

  “Then give them back their bag,” Lucy said, fuming at his stubbornness. “What’s wrong with you?”

  Nick motioned for me to go look for the bag.

  As I turned, Lucy grabbed my arm, her eyes glaring. “You should’ve been upfront with me in the bar. I might’ve been able to help had I known the real reason for you being in Kingsville. I had no idea you were after the bag of vials.”

  “Yeah, well, next time I’ll casually slip that in. I mean, ‘Hey, have you seen our zombie virus vials?’ is a question so easily asked over a game of pool,” Nick said in a sarcastic tone.

  “Where’re the girls—Jackie, Claire, and Val?” Tahoe asked.

  “The girls are fine, but Val turned,” I said, trying to keep my temper from exploding. “And we lost her.” I yanked my arm from Lucy’s grip and ran down the stairs. My eyes scanned the empty, musty basement. A wooden door to the far left caught my attention. I flung the door open and saw something in the back corner. “There’s nothing down here but a metallic box!” I yelled.


  “You have to open it!” Lucy yelled down.

  It hit me then why our tracker had stopped working: The concrete basement, along with the underground environment, was certainly capable of blocking the signal. I opened the metal box and sure enough, there was the long-lost bag of vials. Relief flooded through me. “It’s here!” I yelled, emotion pouring from my voice. I grabbed some rope from a nearby shelf, and hurried up the stairs, faster than I’d ever climbed stairs before, taking them two or three at a time. Unzipping the bag, I pulled one vial out and showed it to Nick.

  My brother’s eyes lit up with hope. “We can save her!” he whispered.

  I was working so hard to contain my emotions that I could only nod in reply.

  “Let me see one of those,” Nick said.

  I handed him one, and he held it up to Tahoe’s face.

  “All you had to do was leave us one vial—just one so we could save our sister’s life.”

  “I did! I left it by the window, at the airport tower,” he said. “What kind of person do you take me for anyway? Do you think I’d leave Val out to dry like that? I saw what she was going through!”

  “You’re a liar. There was no vial there,” Nick said. “You have a nice life here with the kids and the missus. How would you like it if one of them became a zombie and I took the cure out of your hands? Could you watch them turn into a creature of the night, the way I had to watch Val change? I had to tie my freaking sister up and drug her and put a bag over her head, for goodness sake!”

  “He’s sorry,” Lucy said. “You got what you came for, so just go!”

  “We plan on it, and trust me when I say we’ve had enough of your small-town hospitality around here. But we have to make sure you don’t go trying to get help before we’re out of town,” I said, tying her hands behind her back. “I’m sorry, Lucy, but it has to be this way.”

  “Where’s the lab?” Nick demanded, pounding Tahoe into the wall again.

  “Two miles down, Tyler Road,” Lucy said. “It’s a big white building. You can’t miss it. But why are you going to the lab just to retrieve one little vial? You already have the entire bag. If you wanna live, you’d better just go!”