My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road

by David Powers King

  Malcolm’s men could barely keep me still.

  The gun shook in Jewel’s hand. “I can’t.”

  “We all do things we don’t want, missy.”

  He gestured at the men who were holding me.

  I froze when my other Beretta touched my ear.

  Malcolm laughed. “Time for scrambled eggs!”

  I threw up a little in my mouth. Was he talking about brains? Did these guys eat people’s brains? This took the whole brain on drugs slogan to another level.

  “Make your choice, girl. We ain’t got all morning.”

  Now that I knew what these creeps were capable of, any second would be our last. Cody was out. We were outnumbered. Without looking at me, Jewel walked to Cody. His mouth was open. She raised the gun to his head, holding her breath and glancing at me.

  They were going to kill us. She had no choice.

  “Hurry it up,” Malcolm said. “Time’s a-tick’en!”

  “Don’t do this,” Kaylynn said. “Let us go, or else!”

  Malcolm looked straight at her. “Or else what?”

  Kaylynn’s jaw clenched and Chloe barked, making Jewel jump back. I’d completely forgotten about the retriever. One of the men had her by the collar. Jewel lowered the gun, unable to take the shot. I knew what would happen next. Just as I thought, Malcolm frowned and told his men to shoot me instead. Jewel bawled and Kaylynn cried out as the hammer cocked in my ear.

  Kaylynn’s eyes met mine one last time—just as they turned red. A loud crack sounded next to my ear instead of a bang. It was the sound of bone breaking.

  The man behind me screamed and dropped my Beretta. He quickly backed off, cradling his twisted, broken arm. I was confused and scared. I’d heard of spontaneous combustion, but not limbs that snap on their own. When the others let go of me, their bodies sailed across the room and crashed into the juice machine. The two holding Kaylynn back had a hard time doing so. She was growling like a Vector. When one of them came close enough, she bit into his arm. I was never so happy to see those red eyes of hers, but then I saw blood dribbling down her chin. I wondered, and worried, if she’d changed into a Vector for good.

  “The hell?” Malcolm reached for his gun. He aimed at Kaylynn, her mouth locked onto one of his minions.

  Bang!

  Malcolm’s gun flew from his hand. The smoking barrel of my .45 in Jewel’s hand caught my eye. A spaghetti western stunt like that was just the distraction Kaylynn needed. Throwing her arms back, she sent both men crashing into the receptionist desk.

  The last man standing let go of Chloe so he could reach for his gun, but I sprang into action and pushed him away. The back of his head cracked against a wall, and then he collapsed to the floor. The others turned and ran away, leaving Malcolm alone with us. This was our chance, but Cody was still out, and he had the keys.

  Kaylynn turned to me. “Help me, Jay!”

  I grabbed Cody’s ankles and we carried him to the lobby. There was no time to get all our things. Malcolm wasn’t following us. He ran off instead, but who was to say he wasn’t coming back with reinforcements?

  Only an idiot would wait to find out.

  We were almost at the Explorer when I realized Jewel wasn’t with us. She was at the entrance with Chloe, my .45 in her hand. I fished for the keys in Cody’s pocket, used the remote to unlock the doors, and helped Cody into the backseat. If Kaylynn drove us out of there, we’d be fine, except she was Vector-like.

  When her anger subsided, I didn’t know if she would be normal again or if she would fall asleep. If push came to shove, I’d have to drive us out of there.

  “Come on, Jewel!” I cried.

  She and Chloe jumped in. To my surprise, Kaylynn yanked the front door open, grabbed my arm and practically threw me into the driver’s seat. “You know how to drive, don’t you?”

  I shook my head.

  Growling, she shoved me to the passenger seat. She climbed in and took the keys. Her blue eyes had come back. “All I have is a learner’s permit. Buckle up!”

  Kaylynn spurred the engine to life and pulled the car in reverse. The bumper nudged the side of a Toyota before she geared the car into drive and sped out of the parking lot. We hung a left and ran over a few Vectors as we sped down the street. Kaylynn had sweat on her forehead, and her eyes were droopy. She had control of the wheel, but I wasn’t sure if she could sustain it.

  “How come you didn’t pass out?” I asked.

  “No idea,” she said. “I’m getting used to it.”

  She hadn’t wiped the blood off her face yet. Combined with her pale, clammy skin, she could easily be mistaken for a Vector at first sight. I had to close my eyes for a second. “That guy who was going to shoot me . . .” I had to ask. “How did you break his arm?”

  Kaylynn kept her eyes on the road. Her lips moved, as if searching for the right thing to say. We reached another intersection. “Should I make a right or go left?”

  “Definitely not right,” I said.

  The airport was in that direction.

  We turned left again, passed a Motel 6, and continued east. An onramp was just ahead for a southbound interstate. So long as we created distance between Malcolm and us, I didn’t mind jumping onto a major highway for a while—just until we had a chance to recalibrate our plan. I turned to check the backseat.

  Jewel still had my .45. Her cheeks were wet. I wasn’t sure how to help her. Chloe perked up before she wedged her nose under Jewel’s arm. “You must hate me,” she said. “They . . . they were going to—”

  “It’s okay, Jewel. You’re okay,” I said. “You’ll never have to do that again. I promise.”

  Jewel wiped her eyes and frowned. “I better not.”

  I reached out to her. “Give me the gun.” As we entered the onramp, Jewel returned my .45. I checked the magazine. Empty. “I thought we loaded these?”

  “They took everything,” Jewel said. “The ammo, the guns. It’s all gone.”

  Crapshoot. Without weapons or Kaylynn’s bat, we were history. I turned around, trying to think up a plan when a crash startled me. Two cars and a pickup were pushed away by the same black semi from the Holiday Inn parking lot. Its massive headlights shined in my side view mirror before it was blown off by a bullet. Kaylynn swerved, careful not to clip the car in front of us. The semi climbed over it, crushing it like a monster truck.

  “It’s him!” Jewel looked out the back window.

  When I told her to get down, she went to the floor. Good thing she had. One stray bullet through the backseat and she’d be a goner. Unless we found a way to lose Malcolm, he’d crush us into oblivion. This was it. Time to think fast. What could I possibly throw at the truck to make Malcolm leave us alone? I wasn’t about to waste our food and water. My ideas ran dry.

  “Watch out!” Kaylynn screamed.

  Our bumper made friends with a Vector, sprawled on top of our hood. A tangled mess of hair shrouded her face as she clawed at the windshield, oblivious of the high-speed car that had plowed into her. She blocked Kaylynn’s view, forcing us to clip a jeep and a minivan as the semi rammed into us from behind.

  The Vector fell when the truck hit us again. As more Vectors appeared, I knew we couldn’t keep this up—and then a light bulb lit up in my head. I reached for the dial on the ceiling and opened the sunroof.

  “What’re you doing?” Kaylynn asked.

  Instead of answering, I plunged my hand into my backpack and grabbed the .500. Dad said it would blow up anything. Time to put those words of his to the test.

  “How long have you had that?” Kaylynn asked.

  Now wasn’t the time to answer. “Keep it steady.”

  I climbed between the seats. Chloe barked as I stood on the armrest and poked my head out of the opening. Jewel repeated what Kaylynn had asked, but I had to do this before Malcolm shot at me first. He had someone with him, someone loading a revolver. Using the roof to steady my arm, I cocked the hammer back and aimed carefully, holding the grip as tigh
t as I could.

  BLAM!

  My hands flew back as the semi’s grill blew out.

  A shredded belt whipped the engine inside. Smoke billowed out, making it impossible for Malcolm to see. My ears rang, but we traveled on while the semi veered and slammed into the side of a school bus. The Vectors didn’t care about us anymore. We sped away from the inevitable bloodbath that was in store for Mr. Malcolm.

  Our escape came with a price. My wrist hurt again, worse than the first time I’d fired that gun. I ducked down, closed the sunroof and sat down again. The giant pistol weighed a smidgen lighter than it had a second ago. I opened the cylinder and counted: two rounds left.

  Between here and Kansas City, unless we found a place to stock up, that was our last and only defense.

  Jewel returned to her seat and buckled in. “I can’t believe you did that!”

  I put the .500 inside my backpack. “Me too.”

  “Hey,” Cody said, holding his head in his hand. “How did we get in here? What happened?”

  Before we said anything, I glanced at Kaylynn. She hadn’t cleaned herself. I rubbed at my mouth and chin. Catching the signal that I’d pitched, she rubbed the blood from her face with the sleeve of my extra shirt.

  “After you passed out, we—found an opening, and we took it,” I said.

  Cody seemed skeptical. “The three of you against ten of them?”

  “Yeah,” Jewel piped in. “We have a special gun. Show him, Jeremy.”

  I was glad to see that Jewel was back to her normal self again. On the other hand, she was back to her normal self again, talking about things that were better left unmentioned. I let Cody see the .500.

  “Nice,” he said groggily. “What other surprises do you got in that bag?”

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” Kaylynn said, her eyes tight on the road.

  I glared back at her. We had just made it out of Lincoln in one piece. What was her problem?

  “We don’t have any other weapons,” Jewel said. “What are we going to do?”

  “Stay on Highway 77,” Cody said. “I’m—crashing for a bit.” And that’s just what he did.

  The rest of us took a breath.

  Kaylynn refused to look at me, and my mind couldn’t let go of the man who had almost shot me. His arm broke for no reason, no reason that I could tell.

  What did Kaylynn know that I didn’t?

  Like my .500, she had a secret, too.

  When it comes to the Midwest, you can always count on rain. Clear skies one minute—gray skies the next.

  The first clap of thunder sounded after we’d driven south for an hour. We were then hit with a free car wash seconds later. Since the car was splattered in Vector guts, the rinse couldn’t have been timelier. Rain splashed the windshield, making it hard to see the road.

  Kaylynn took the highway slow while I checked on Jewel. She stared out the window, stroking the top of Chloe’s head. As for Cody, he slept like a brick and breathed like a lion. I thought my snoring was bad.

  As the road stretched on, my thoughts returned to the Holiday Inn, the chained Vectors, and what Malcolm meant by scrambled eggs. I really wanted to talk to Kaylynn. Fear kept my mouth shut—fear that Cody would overhear us. We had agreed to keep a good distance from big towns until we reached Kansas City.

  The hours rolled into noon, and I released my mounting stress with a sigh. The silence was unsettling. I tried the radio a couple times without any luck.

  Escaping a city of psychopaths warranted a lot of reflection, and I wondered how things would be if our confrontation had gone differently. If Kaylynn had some control of her infection, why not change sooner? Why did she wait until I had a gun to my head? The broken arm was the biggest mystery of all. Kaylynn was on the other side of the table. She couldn’t have done it.

  I had no explanation. My imagination kicked in.

  Did Kaylynn have telekinetic powers?

  I’d read Carrie once, a book about a girl with telekinetic powers who lost it and tore her town to shreds with her mind. I stole a glance at Kaylynn. She was too busy driving to notice me. She had her Cubs cap on again. If we’d stayed together instead of splitting up, we would have avoided that horrific confrontation altogether. Was that why she was so angry with me? It wasn’t my fault. Or even Cody’s. Okay, mostly Cody’s.

  I had to say something. My mouth was glue.

  Kaylynn breathed, and then she whispered, “He’ll never buy it.” This was the icebreaker I needed. Cody shifted. I wished I had a feather and a can of shaving cream. “That guy’s arm—I’ve never done that before.”

  “Did you mean to?” I asked.

  Kaylynn checked behind her. She had dodged my question, her lips trembling. I looked too. We both wanted to make sure Cody was asleep first, before we continued. “I wanted that guy to point the gun away. I was so angry. I just thought of grabbing his hand and, I lost control.” She shivered a little. Rain kept splashing against the windshield. “Did I really break his arm?”

  “You just thought about it, and it happened?”

  “I don’t know. I’m never doing that again.”

  “Unless you have to, right?” Jewel asked.

  Kaylynn turned back, enough to see her. “Yeah. I’ll do what I must to keep you safe.” Her blue eyes looked at me before she turned back to the road. “All of you.”

  And here I thought she was mad at us. “Thanks.”

  “You took me in. It’s the least I can do.”

  Jewel leaned forward. “Where’re we going?”

  Good question. I hadn’t bothered to look at the map. Mom and Dad did mark the route they were taking. If we followed it, our chance of running into them was a fair one. I found the map and unfolded it.

  Creases had worn away some of the details.

  A highlighted yellow line started at David City and ended at Kansas City Missouri: south on Highway 15, east on 41, south again on State 77, all the way to Interstate 70—a straight line to Kansas City. It was hard to tell which road we were on. If we found Mom, I’d never be critical of her navigational skills again.

  Our stop at Lincoln was something of a detour. Lucky for us, we were on State 77. We’d driven east a bit sooner than our parents had. If we stayed south and followed 77 all the way to the 70, we wouldn’t have an issue. Except we had an issue: no food and no water.

  And with the exception of my two .500 rounds, no weapons. The icing on the crap cake was the gas-guzzler we were driving in. We were about to be high and dry if we didn’t fill up soon.

  Beatrice was the next town on the map. Kaylynn drove around it. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, making it easier for us to see—and avoid—the roaming Vectors. Something about rain had an effect on them. They looked to the sky, mouths open, but they didn’t drown like turkeys. My guess is they were trying to figure out what was touching them. Rain dampens the smell and the sound, too. We drove around a pack of them, and they didn’t seem to notice us.

  Forty miles later, we crossed over the state line:

  Welcome to Kansas

  We were finally out of Nebraska—not that the scenery was any different.

  “Uh oh,” Kaylynn uttered. “Does this mean we’re running out of gas?”

  I checked the dash. Sure enough, our needle was in the red. Just a few miles more and we’d be stranded.

  “We’re on 77, right?” Cody’s sudden voice made us jump. “What time is it?”

  “Almost two,” Jewel said.

  Was it really mid-afternoon already?

  “Still on 77,” Kaylynn added. “Almost out of gas.”

  I looked at the map. “Marysville is the next town.”

  Cody clapped once. “I know just the place.”

  That’s what he’d said about Holiday Inn.

  “Feeling any better?” Kaylynn asked.

  Cody yawned. “I guess so. I kinda want to know what happened, but I’m hungry. What have we got to eat?” He went to see what he could find in the back, s
tartling Chloe. “Damn—we didn’t take anything from the hotel, did we?” He grabbed the back of Kaylynn’s seat, frantically pulling himself forward to stare at her, Jewel, and then me. “Where’s my bow and knives?”

  “They took it all.” I held up my .45. “Almost.”

  Cody’s brow furrowed. “How did we get out?”

  “The South Side guys showed up!” Jewel said.

  Everyone turned to her.

  “It gave us a chance to slip out,” Kaylynn added.

  I nodded. “They almost made Jewel shoot you.”

  Cody looked down at his knees and rubbed his eyes. I think he could tell I was serious. Throwing a little truth in there made our story sound more legitimate. My part would’ve happened if Kaylynn hadn’t let her infection loose. Cody shifted to my sister. “Is that true? Were they going to make you shoot me?” When she nodded, he raised his chin and sighed. “I owe you.”

  That was the best thank you we’d ever get from him.

  “Here’s Marysville,” Kaylynn said. “What now?”

  We turned off the highway instead of entering the town and drove on a dirt road. Some of the rain had fallen there, so we didn’t kick up any dust. Cody directed Kaylynn, backseat-driving us to the parking lot of a big box store. Mom called it Wally World—I won’t tell you what my dad called it. He’d rather face a firing squad than step foot inside the place. Something about a friend who had gone out of business. His influence rubbed off on me, but my reservation had more to do with their cheap appliances, not to mention disturbing sights from the more unsavory side of humanity. After battling Vectors for four weeks, nothing could faze me.

  Kaylynn pulled up to the entrance, its windows and doors smashed in. According to Dad, this meant people had either ransacked the place, or Vectors had found a way to eat the people inside. It was dark in there. With a few hours of afternoon on our side, we had to make do with the scant light. Jewel had her hands cupped. Her thumbs tumbled over each other. She was just as antsy to have a look around as I was. Kaylynn turned the car off, removed the keys and handed them to me.

  Cody snatched them before I could reach them. “First order of business: get gas,” he said, resuming his command. “Then we’ll stock up on whatever’s inside. I’ll drive the rest of the way.”