My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road

by David Powers King

  I had to do something for all the times Kaylynn and Jewel had saved my sorry rear end. I had to be more than the guy with the backpack. Speaking of backpacks, mine was starting to get heavy. Seriously heavy. I led Jewel outside of the munitions room.

  “Great find, Jewel,” Kaylynn said.

  “Thanks. Are the Vectors gone?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “Let’s find some food.”

  After a short bathroom break, we scavenged around the rest of the station. Aside from a few strewn papers and cluttered cubicles, there wasn’t much left.

  But then I had an idea. What if the employees had secret stashes? I walked into an office and checked the drawers. Sure enough, someone had a few sodas and a box of chewy granola bars hidden away. We downed them fast. I knew sugar water wouldn’t last long, but the caffeine kick did zap away the last of my grogginess. If you ever need a good laugh, slip Jewel a Mountain Dew.

  Kaylynn poured some water into a cereal bowl. Chloe lowered her head and lapped it up.

  “I want my pack,” Jewel said. “It had the PSP.”

  “And your iPod?” I asked, although a part of me panicked. If she had lost her music, she’d be crushed.

  She reached into her pocket and pulled it out, flashing a huge smile. “I always have it on me!”

  “What have you got on it?” Kaylynn held her hand out, and Jewel let her see her treasure. Kaylynn scrolled through the menu for half a minute, her smile widening each second. “Black-eyed Peas. Duran Duran. The Beatles?” She handed it back. “You’ve got great taste.”

  Jewel beamed. “You can listen to it if you want.”

  Kaylynn tousled her chestnut hair. “I’d like that.”

  Their exchange brought a smile to my face. Jewel finally had her own big sister, just like she’d always wanted. What if Kaylynn became an in-law? I shook the idea out of my head. “Does this station have a garage?”

  “I didn’t see one last night,” Kaylynn answered.

  Keys in hand, we searched the rest of the building. How cool would it be to drive the rest of the way to Kansas City in a highway patrol car? Or on a police motorcycle? An armored Humvee? Tank? Daydreaming wouldn’t help us find the garage, but it was sure fun.

  Having what we needed, we left the building and checked the street. A Stalker strolled down the road a couple blocks away. Behind the sheriff station was a small impound, filled with vehicles. We stuck close to the trees, checking our backs as we went. A chain-linked fence and a padlocked gate kept us out. No problem. Kaylynn whacked the lock off with one swing. Once inside, we closed the gate shut. A gray-skinned monster limped its way to the fence, its fingers curling through the thin links. Ignoring him, I looked around the small impound. Not much to look at: junk, a few barrels, and a car with a garden hose sticking out of the tank.

  I leaned on a crate and fell on my backside.

  “Hey!” Jewel cried. “Are you okay, Jeremy?”

  I nodded. “I didn’t think it would move.”

  “What’s that?” Kaylynn pointed. Until I shoved the boxes away, we’d never know. My efforts discovered two motorbikes. Their tanks sloshed with gas. “Sweet!”

  We pulled the bikes out and inspected them. Both had a full tank. The tires had plenty of air in them still. There was just one problem. We didn’t have the keys.

  “So . . .” I said. “How do we start these things?”

  “Hold this.” Kaylynn tossed her bat to me. She hopped on the first bike, flipped a switch near the right handle, leaned the bike to the left and slammed her foot on the pedal. The engine sputtered to life. “You twist to accelerate, and you break with these—like a bike.”

  “I know. Will these take us to Kansas City?”

  “No, but they’ll take us most of the way.”

  Anything other than walking was good to me.

  “What about Chloe?” Jewel asked.

  She barked, as if grateful to be remembered.

  Kaylynn whistled. “Come, Chloe!” The retriever jumped onto her lap. Kaylynn let the dog rest her paws on the handlebars. “I bet you two can’t keep up!”

  “You’re on!” I said, ready to race, even though I had never ridden a motorbike in my life.

  I copied what Kaylynn had showed us and started the other bike. Since my backpack was in the way, Jewel climbed in front of me. As I twisted the handle, the back tire flung small rocks. Our bike zipped to the gate.

  Kaylynn’s did the same, smoother than ours. The jolt nearly made me fall off the seat, but I held on. I had to hold on. There was no time to learn how to ride the machine, since our noise had awakened most of the dead in town. After Kaylynn kicked the gate open, we sped out of the small impound and down the street before the Vectors could grab us. According to the dial, the bike could reach 40 miles an hour. Even at 20 MPH, gliding over the pavement gave me a rush. My face cut into the wind. Jewel cheered, begging me to go faster.

  How could I say no?

  We left city limits in no time at all. The next few miles played out like a videogame, racing down the road and avoiding random obstacles along the way. We dodged suitcases, cars, and the occasional Vector.

  I flexed my hands every now and then so my fingers wouldn’t freeze up. We soon crossed over the Missouri River, and then we turned south. We pulled off the interstate for a rest near a cabled bridge that led to Kansas City. Since our bikes were almost out of gas, Kaylynn suggested that we should ditch the bikes and continue on foot. The city was likely crawling with Vectors, so I seconded the motion. Jewel thirded it.

  “Do we know where to look?” Kaylynn asked.

  I pulled my dad’s map out to check. “There,” I said, pointing at a circle that highlighted an area in the lower end of town. “I bet we’ll know it when we see it.”

  “You shouldn’t bet,” Kaylynn said.

  I let the remark slide. My bets weren’t terrible.

  “I’m good to go,” Jewel said, chipper as ever.

  We walked into the city, beginning the last leg of our mission. If Cody hadn’t left us in Marysville, we would’ve arrived already. For his sake, I hoped we wouldn’t find him. As for Kaylynn, she was okay. We were closer than before. We would have plenty of time to understand where we stood with each other after a dose of that cure, if one even existed. What Kaylynn had said to me the night before was beginning to make sense. All I could do was hope that a cure was ready.

  For the next half hour, we walked down Main Street through the quiet, deserted city. The shade of skyscrapers kept the sun off our backs. The place was eerily silent with more empty cars and drifting garbage than I cared to notice. With our eyes and ears open, we soon entered the circle that my parents had drawn for us. There wasn’t anything in the area that looked remotely like a medical center or a research facility. Behind us was an abandoned museum that used to be a train station. In front of us, on a hill, was a memorial tower with a torch. To our right was an IRS office building. An IRS building was a secure place, right?

  “You think that’s it?” I asked.

  Kaylynn looked to where I was pointing. “Internal Revenue Service?”

  “Death and taxes,” Jewel said, matter-of-factly.

  I laughed. So did Kaylynn.

  “Random, Jewel,” she said. “I love it.”

  I think my sister was about to say thanks when Kaylynn’s attention turned to the building with the tall tower. She took a step forward and gazed at it, longingly. The sight had captivated her. If she was a fan of architecture, this was news to me. It wasn’t until Chloe whined when I thought something wasn’t right. I’d never seen Kaylynn so mesmerized over anything.

  “Hey.” She didn’t answer. “What is it, Kaylynn?”

  “That . . . tower,” she said. “This may sound crazy, but I . . . I want to go up there for some reason.” She took another step. “We have to go in that building.”

  “Why?” Jewel asked. “You’ve seen it before?”

  “No—I just belong in there.” Kaylynn palmed her for
ehead. A puzzled look washed over her face. “This is how I felt when those Vectors invaded David City!”

  A bumblebee zipped by. Jewel tugged my arm.

  I turned around just as the moaning and snarling of the undead entered my ears. Vectors were coming from the streets and around alleyway corners. We were in the heart of the city, and now they had decided to show up! Being super quiet since arriving had no effect, but then I realized something obvious—Kaylynn was infected. The same pathogen that connected a Vector’s mind to her mind allowed them to see what Kaylynn was seeing. And seeing us with her was like ringing a dinner bell.

  “You think we can handle this, Kaylynn?” Jewel said, backing into me.

  She looked at them and shook her head. “No.”

  Jewel’s bangs whipped her ears. “Why not?”

  She had no time to explain, and I didn’t have enough bullets to slow them down. We ran to the grassy hill in front of us, heading for the building with the tower. The base of it grew bigger as we neared the large mural. There was no door. We had no choice but to run around it and head south. After we passed the building’s east wing, my lungs ached for breath. Reflected sunlight flashed at me, from a car in the distance that was facing the entrance. A Ford Explorer. Our Ford Explorer.

  Cody had parked the car there. I turned around to see where there was and read golden words above the building’s main entrance: National World War I Museum

  This had to be the place. I didn’t need to look at the map in my clenched hand to confirm my instincts. We didn’t have time. Hundreds of Vectors were coming from the south, from the east, the west and right behind us. If we didn’t book it for the Museum, we were dead.

  “This way!” I said. “We gotta get inside!”

  “Seriously?” Jewel cried. “This is crazy!”

  Maybe it was crazy, but Cody was in there. Maybe our parents were inside, too. Either way, we were about to be surrounded by more Vectors than ever before.

  We sprinted to the bronze doors. I wrapped my fingers around the nearest handle. The door wouldn’t budge. Jewel tried the middle door. It wouldn’t open either. The Vectors had nearly caught up to us—their jaws snapping, their arms lashing. They were on the hunt for our flesh. I grabbed the Glock from my leg holster.

  A gross splat made us spin around. Some guy in a pair of jogging shorts had fallen from above. His head split on the concrete like a putrid melon. Then another splat came, and then a dozen more. Decaying bodies rained down in front of us like an undead waterfall, pouring from the terrace above the museum. There had to be dozens, if not hundreds more of them. Some rose to their feet and escaped the decomposed dog-pile.

  These monsters would never give up, and neither would we. Kaylynn reached for the last door handle and pulled with all her might. The other doors wouldn’t open for us, so I expected hers to be the same. To my surprise, she pried the big door open with no problem.

  She gestured at the entrance. “Get inside!”

  She didn’t need to tell us twice.

  Jewel and I ran for the door, and Chloe shot past our ankles. Even if we made it in, there was no handle to pull the door closed on the other side, and no means of locking or barricading it. I was about to pull the door back when several rotted hands grabbed the edges. And then the door slammed shut. With so many pushing on the door, they had sealed it shut for us. A severed finger fell and then twitched on the marble floor. I wanted to hurl, but I kept my lunch in my gut for the girls’ sake.

  This was only a setback for the Vectors. They threw their relentless fists and foreheads at the doors. They couldn’t get in unless they pulled the handles. I breathed and looked at Jewel. She leaned against a wall.

  “Too close!” she said. “What do we do now?”

  “Did you see the Explorer?” I said. “Cody’s here.”

  “Why not use your powers, Kaylynn?” Jewel asked.

  She could’ve used them. Kaylynn and I knew this, but Jewel was oblivious of our deal. If we had relied on Kaylynn’s red eyes for every jam we ran into, the chance of her turning into a permanent Vector was too high.

  “If I go into Vector Mode, I may turn for good,” she answered. Vector Mode? I liked the sound of that. “They didn’t show up because of me,” she added.

  “What then?” I asked. “I’ve never seen so many.”

  “I know. It’s like something’s calling to them.”

  “Guys,” Jewel said. “The lights are working.”

  Sure enough, the entryway had soft lighting on. I saw this as a good sign. We wandered into the lobby that branched to a gift shop on the left, and another wing on the right. A bridge of glass stretched out before us, spanning over a pit of fake orange flowers. Poppies? I didn’t look long enough to make sure. The last light of dusk was bleeding through the skylight above our heads, with a horde of determined Vectors trying to punch and gnaw their way through the thick glass.

  Jewel took the radio from my belt and switched it on. “Mom? Dad?” Jewel said into it. “Do you copy?”

  Static.

  “Let me see,” I said, taking the radio from her. “Maybe there’s better reception inside.”

  “This isn’t exactly my idea of a research facility . . .” Kaylynn uttered. With all the WWI propaganda posters covering the walls, she had made another valid point.

  We crossed the bridge and stopped in front of a theater entrance. We were about to make our way into the exhibit entrance when a sharp crack made us stop.

  The pounding fists and extra weight had taken its toll on the glass above. Chloe barked at the skylight as the entire ceiling caved in. Glass rained down with more Vectors than I could count.

  Most of them crashed through the bridge and into the flowery pit, spattering blood on the fake orange flowers. More Vectors had found the opening, and they fell in, landing on the glass bridge like limp rag dolls. Chloe’s barking gave our location away. Their sunken eyes found us, their gazes locked as they teetered for us.

  We bolted to the exhibit on our right. Old artillery cannons greeted us there. Rifles and military pistols lined the walls, all locked behind glass. Another wall had a timeline of events leading up to, during and after the First World War—not that I had time to brush up on my history. I searched for a place to hide, knowing that hiding would be useless. The Vectors would sniff us out and tear us to pieces—or they would eat us alive.

  A mock trench and a dangling airplane later, we found a curved room with a long table and interactive features. There had to be a restricted area in this place. Or an exit, but I couldn’t find one. As we were about to leave the circular room, an undead girl blocked our way.

  She had one arm. Dry blood stained half of her pink tank top. It was time for me to test the Glock.

  The reservation behind what Sam had said no longer stuck with me. There was no hope for these infected. Putting them down would do them a favor. I fired a shot at the Vector’s face. The girl’s head snapped back before she fell on and shattered a glass case. Glass shards spread across the floor. I looked at the Glock, feeling impressed. The Beretta was a better fit for my hand, but the 9mm didn’t weigh as much. It hardly had any recoil, and fired clean and straight with little effort.

  Kaylynn swatted my wrist. “Make out with your gun later. Let’s go!”

  We resumed our run as more Vectors entered the exhibit. Jewel struggled to keep up. We passed an old tank and a row of uniforms. I shot another Vector that nearly cut us off, this one a boy in an Avengers shirt.

  The layout of the museum confused me, so I drew a map of the place inside my head. The far walls had a curvature. The inside had to be circular. If we kept running, we would end up where we had started, right where the Vectors were pouring—literally—into the museum. We had to find another way out, and fast!

  Static blared from my waist. “Go to the American exhibit!”

  All three of us stopped while I looked down. “Who’s that?” I asked.

  Jewel snatched the radio and cranked it up
.

  “Can you hear me?” It wasn’t Mom or Dad. “Hello?”

  “Who’s this?” Jewel looked as puzzled as me.

  “I’m here to help. Now go to the American exhibit.”

  I grabbed the radio from my sister. “Who are you?”

  “That’s not important,” the voice answered. “Head for the emergency door on your right, behind the horse carriage. Take the elevator around the corner to the observation deck.”

  “What about the zombies up there?” I asked.

  “Go to the door at the tower. I will meet you there.”

  My fingers gripped the radio tightly. “Why should we trust you?”

  “You have no choice.” True, we didn’t. “They’re coming!”

  A new feeling shot through my bones, and my instincts screamed that our parents were with this man, whoever he was. This same instinct warned me not to trust him. I had no idea who he was, but I bet my last bag of jerky that he had cameras on us.

  Grabbing Jewel’s hand, we ran to the place where the voice told us to go. I kicked the doors open. It took us a second to find the elevator. Kaylynn pressed the call button. Ten seconds later, the Vectors had figured where we had gone. They came towards us, clumsily stepping over each other. I fired two more rounds.

  Jewel pulled me into the elevator, where Kaylynn was frantically pressing for the highest floor. She then used her bat—and I used one of my bullets—to push the Vectors away from the doors so they would close. The elevator jolted up. I finally had a moment to catch my breath. Chloe was shaking, but otherwise fine. We came to a stop a few seconds later where the doors opened to a large room, the walls decorated with portraits of military people from the early 20th century. The radio guy never mentioned this place. And where was the observation deck?

  “Good,” said the voice. “Now head for the tower.”

  Taking the lead, I ran to the exit and opened the door. The sun was about to set, a red glow filling the sky. Straggling Stalkers made their way to the broken skylight beyond a pair of giant sphinxlike statues. The tower stood before us, the top ornamented with carvings of people, praying. At that moment, I figured there wasn’t any harm in saying a prayer, if I knew how.