“Look at you, hero ! You’re just saving people all over the place.”
And then I got it. She was still Lana. Rescuing her in the Economics building had carried me this far, but now I was out of good will. In the end, I had left her to fend for herself. For a second I thought of heaping the bulk of the blame on Tom. He was the one who had said that she was gone, but I had believed him. I hadn’t fought hard enough to know for sure.
But…
“I left the door unlocked,” I whispered. “And… and you got out, right?”
Lana turned all of her face to mine. Her eyes were fixed in a glare that could slice through steel.
“Yeah. Thanks for that.”
What had happened to her? Did the zombies find the door open and try to turn her ? I had taken the gun. And the bat. She had no weapons at her disposal. So how had she escaped?
“Lana?”
I touched her arm, and she quickly shrugged me off.
“So no touching right now. Got it. Just tell me what happened.”
The car grew in speed.
“I woke up with Clay’s arm on my leg.”
Had he had the device or the bomb or whatever it was strapped to his chest?
“It was a pretty massive explosion---”
“And I screamed. I was under a cabinet, and I screamed for you.”
I had never felt worse in my entire life.
“For any of you.”
Just when I didn’t think I could slip any lower…
“I’m… I’m sorry. Really.”
“I thought you guys were toast. I looked for you. For your parts. Nothing. So I headed for the stairs. I assumed you would be waiting for me. But you were all gone. You… you…”
She couldn’t continue, but she kept the car moving. I could see Lana emerging from the med wing and feeling more alone than she had ever been.
“So… so what did you do?”
I needed the whole story. Lana bit her lip.
“I knew I couldn’t stay there. I thought...I mean I really thought that there was a good reason why you guys had split.”
Lana blinked back tears. I hated what had happened to her, even if it wasn’t all my fault. My hand couldn’t resist, and I reached for the wheel and her fingers. Lana pushed me away and just kept driving.
“Where were you guys?”
I could still throw Tom under the bus. I could tell her that I never wanted to go. But even though it was true, I was pretty sure that she would believe it.
“We… we went to Leslie’s?”
Why did it come out like a question when she knew that it was true?
“Right. That was always he mission. But you failed, Sam. Again.”
Failure was becoming a way of this new life. My mind drifted back to Leslie and the last time I had actually seen her. Tom was sleeping, and I had to get to class. We shared a pot of coffee in her kitchen. Leslie told me that she was thinking of buying Tom an XBox game that would benefit from Cloud features for Christmas. When she shared that, I thought she was the coolest girlfriend going. Next time I saw her, she was a zombie. And it wasn’t because of endless Xbox hours. I’d failed her. And Gabby. And whatever Tammy was.
But Lana was still in play.
It took a ton of courage on my part, but I reached for her hand again. This time, I didn’t let her push me away.
“You’re still here.”
Lana struggled between the steering wheel and my grasp.
“No thanks to you. And guess what, hero ?”
I already knew what she was going to say.
“More… zombies?”
“Ding, ding, ding! You get a gold star, genius. Picture it, Sam. No gun, no friends, no nothing. At least I had two good legs to count on.”
It was a low blow, but I took it. Not like I didn’t deserve worse.
“So… so you just---”
“I ran, Sam. What else was I supposed to do? I’d stop every few steps and throw grass and rocks and dirt at them. After a while, I didn’t know where I was.”
I could see Lana getting turned around every which way until her two good legs ached, but the adrenaline fueled by terror kept her going. It was either that or she just stop and wait for the zombies to make a feast of her. I knew what that felt like.
“And… and then there you were.”
Lana was better than me, stronger than me. She had braved the horde alone and still had a cool enough head to save me from certain zombie slaughter.
“I’m sorry, Lana. I...”
My voice trailed off as her eyes met mine for a second. They were damp and furious and scared. I just wanted a second or eighth chance. I couldn’t screw this up again.
“Look at me, Lana. Please.”
It was probably against her better judgment, but she did.
“What, jerk?”
I swallowed my medicine and willed my mind to look ahead. We’d make it to a safe spot, really talk, and then regroup. So what if we didn’t have the gun? We had Lana’s lead foot and my ability to cut the past away in the hope of some future. Any future.
“It’s… it’s gonna be okay. It is okay, Now that you’re back.”
I thought I saw a part of her melt at my words. Her eyes continued to neglect the road, and I ran my fingers through her hair.
“Sam?”
My fingers gently wound about her throat.
“We’ll figure this out,” I said. “We’ll get out. There has to be help on the outside.”
Lana started to cry. How could I have abandoned her? Because I was weak. That had to change. And fast. I promised myself that I would never leave her again under any circumstances.
“Hey. Come on. We’ll get through this.”
“You really think so?” she asked as she wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve.
It was far from a sure thing, but there was no reason to spoil the moment.
“I do. We’ll make it.”
I had visions of me and Lana escaping to a beach. I’d wear trunks. She would wear less than nothing. We’d sink into the sand and forget the zombie apocalypse. Stranger things had happened.
“Okay, Lana?”
She nodded though her sniffles, and I folded my arm around her shoulders as we both looked to the road. On first glance, it seemed open and endless. We’d get away. We’d live to see another day.
“What the---?”
“Lana?”
“Hold on!”
“Lana!”
There was a barricade of light lying in wait to stop our escape to paradise. I tried to take the wheel from Lana, but her grip was too powerful for me to do anything but close my eyes and brace for the inevitable impact. It was almost upon us when I heard shots ring out. My hand left Lana and went to my head. I expected blood, but there was only a hissing sound, and when Lana struggled to bring the car to a stop, I knew that we were losing the air in our stolen tires. Lana was struggling to control the car.
“Lana!”
There were too many lights and honking horns and more shots before we met the inevitable crash.
And then everything went black.
I awoke in a tent. I could tell as much from the fluttering walls. My head was pounding.
I pushed myself up on my elbows and looked around for Lana. She was sleeping in the cot beside me. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized I hadn’t lost her again. And this looked every inch a sterile environment that promised security and nourishment.
I was so hungry.
My hand started to shake Lana’s shoulder when I heard footsteps barging through what were basically curtains. I looked away from Lana and saw a bunch of guys with guns ( why had I given our piece to the Professor and Morgan?), and they were trailed by a striking woman with porcelain skin and flaming red hair. Her expression was the definition of smug.
“So you’re awake. Good.”
And her voice matched her face.
The redhead dragged a chair to the edge of my cot. She sat slowly cro
ssed her ridiculously long legs.
“Um… yeah. Awake. That’s me”
I scanned her legs as they peeked out under a tailored blue skirt. My eyes moved to her ample chest and finally settled on her perfect face. She wore makeup like she’d been born with it, and when she saw me staring, she gave me a smile.
“Relax. Everything is going to be as it should.”
She reached for my face and let out a low breath against my neck. Maybe it was just the hair, but Tammy suddenly flashed across my mind, and I feared that this was the next level of zombie.
“I…”
“Looks like you and your friend have been through the wringer!”
Now my mind went back to the crash. She, whoever she was, had to have played a part in something else that almost killed us. Zombies, armies… what I wouldn’t give to just have the problem of a term paper due that I hadn’t even started yet.
The redhead’s hands were soft but firm. When I looked into her eyes, she seemed human. Maybe she was human.
But I didn’t trust her.
“Who are you?” I managed to ask.
“We’ll get to that.”
She slowly stood and began to pace the tent. Her boys had their guns lowered at their sides, but I knew if I made just one wrong move, they’d fire. And this time, they’d let the air out of me.
“I apologize for the impromptu surroundings. This isn’t our main base of operations, you know. It’s the price of field work.”
She talked like a professional, and everything about her, the way she moved, was too cool for school. Didn’t she know what was happening ? Maybe she did. Was she part of the rescue effort that everyone who was still human longed for?
Or was she part of something else?
“Do you have any idea what’s going on here?” I blurted out. When she stopped and smiled under an arched eyebrow, I realized that she knew all too well.
“Naturally. Our research dictated that we needed a facsimile of society to run our tests. But we also required an environment contained enough so as to not cause too much panic.”
She stopped moving and hovered over me.
“What better location than a college campus?” she asked.
Despite the pain in my head, I was starting to connect the dots. Lana had seen a mysterious package. Then everything went haywire. A part of me had assumed that the zombie outbreak was an accident of epic proportions.
No. This was all done on purpose.
“So… so you did this?”
“Yes.”
Who was she? Was she part of a group of mad scientists or something? Why were they using us in some sick experiment?
I wanted to get my hands around her pale neck. Better yet, let a zombie take a bite out of her.
I flinched when I heard a cry from beyond the tent. Forgetting all of my anger and all fear for Lana and me, I found my feet and pushed the fabric back.
Zombies by the dozen were shackled and being shoved into an armored car. Each one wore a metal muzzle. The guards were anything but gentle with the butts of their guns, and they stuffed them into the car with sneers and nearly finished cigarettes. As the doors closed on their groans, I suddenly felt pity for the monsters I’d been ducking for days on end.
They hadn’t asked for this to happen to them. None of us had.
“What is this?” I demanded as I turned away from the prisoners. The redhead glided towards me.
“Easy, Sam.”
My insides turned to ice.
“How… how do you know my name?”
“I know lots of things, Sam.”
She leaned close to me. I caught a scent of peaches on her neck. Did she think it was the perfect complement to her creamy skin? Probably. Let her think that. She was rancid fruit.
Before I could speak or move, two of the guards led me back to the edge of my cot. The sound of Lana’s breathing led my eyes back to her sleeping form. Part of me wanted her to wake up and come up with a plan to get us out of here.
But maybe she was safer in a drugged dream.
“We knew there would be casualties. And we’re in the process of containing them.”
The what?
“What… what are you going to do with them?” I choked out.
“We’ll study them for a time. Then we’ll dispose of them.”
I knew what it meant to kill a zombie when it was bearing its brown fangs. To kill a person who was infected with something evil was something else altogether. How would she dispose of them? Fire? Toxic gas? How would they explain all the missing students, professors, and…
“Don’t you think their families are going to want to know what happened?”
“Of course, Sam. Which leads us to phase three. Here. Look.”
She removed her iPhone from her breast pocket. In an instant, she swiped a video to life. It told the story of foreign agents of evil laying waste to our poor, defenseless campus. Interspersed in between scenes of mothers and fathers desperate for a shred of good news were mobs ready to burn terrorists homes out from under them.
I wanted to throw up.
Lana stirred. I thought I saw her eyes flutter, but it was probably just wishful thinking. Was she really alright? Why wasn’t she waking up?”
“Your friend is fine,” the redhead offered. “She’s just sleeping. You can go back to sleep soon. I promise. But first, I have some questions.”
I didn’t want to answer them. I wanted to destroy her, but I had no gun, no bat, no car. I had to try to play this cool.
“Questions? Right. Me, too.”
The redhead laughed.
“Shoot.”
It took me a few seconds to get my jaw working again.
“Um… where exactly are we now?”
“Oh, honey!”
Her voice was totally condescending. I felt like I was back in fifth grade after I’d filled the girls’ locker room with the remnants of my ant farm. I could still heat the girls squealing and Mrs. Johnstone blasting me for immaturity among other things.
If I had some ants now, I’d sic them on this girl.
“Like I said, this is your campus. What’s the matter? You don’t recognize it?”
I hadn’t in days, so why should it be any different now?
“No. That stopped when my friends started turning into monsters. Sorry.”
The redhead looked back at me with a smirk.
“Fair point. But this is your school. Maybe it’s a little different than you’d like to remember it, but it is what it is.”
Maybe it was the hunger or the car accident or the reality of what was happening, but I felt faint. The redhead caught me before I went down and steadied me on the cot.
“A lot to take in?” she asked.
Somehow I was able to nod.
“I can understand that. But you’re safe now.”
I looked to her guys and their guns. So what if they weren’t aiming for my head? I knew it would only take a second to slam a bullet into me, and I didn’t feel safe.
“Why?” I asked.
The redhead snapped her fingers.
“You’re out of questions, Sam. Now it’s time to listen.”
Could I get one more in under the wire?
“Who are you?”
She twirled a stray strand of copper hair between her fingers.
“I suppose that’s fair. Yes. Let’s be familiar. You may call me Ford.”
Ford ? Was that a first name or a last name or a code name? It didn’t matter. I felt like I was getting a little closer to equal ground with a name in my mind.
“Ford. Great. So, Ford---”
“No, Sam.”
She wagged a manicured finger before my eyes.
“Question time is still over for you, Sam.”
My eyes drifted back to Lana.
Lana? Wake up! I need you!
Ford sat beside me and took my hand. I didn’t grab back.
“Sam, do you have people in service?”
Well s
ure! Didn’t everyone? Parents paid tuition and teachers were supposed to beat facts into my brain until I couldn’t remember anything else and waiters kept the coffee and the curly fries coming when I was working off a high.
But that wasn’t what she was talking about.
“Service?”
“Overseas. Abroad. In uniform.”
The answer was no. I had always admired those who made the supreme sacrifice. But even if I didn’t have the bum leg, I was pretty sure that I didn’t have the courage for a really valiant act.
“No. Uh… sorry?”
Ford stroked my cheek.
“That’s okay, Sam. Many don’t. It’s hard to be brave.”
And I wasn’t. I killed a girl after chopping off her hand and left my best friend in a cage.
Put me in that armored car along with the rest of the fallen soldiers.
“Sam. Did you ever stop to think that it would just be easier to let the enemy turn on itself and save us the trouble?”
It sounded clean enough. Lives would be spared. Well, our lives at least. Very Monsters on Maple Street. Let the bad guys tear each other apart and then simply drop in to sweep up the damage.
“Huh.”
Ford’s smile grew wider.
“You follow me, Sam?”
I thought so, but I had to be sure.
“So… so…”
Ford grew impatient and started talking again.
“Sam. We’re on the verge of a new kind of warfare. This type will annihilate societies that threaten our way of life. Collateral damage? Sure. Comes with the territory.”
Ford’s eyes grew brighter and more excited with each passing word.
“Think of it, Sam. They can rip into each other’s flesh instead of ours. We’ve been planning this for years. It’s the best way to eradicate all enemies.”
I couldn’t deny that it made sense on some level. Let the enemy go zombie and turn more and more and more of them into lifeless masses of gray skin and brown teeth.
But…
“But how do you stop them when it’s out of control?”
Ford stroked my chest. I didn’t like that. I didn’t like her. This was dirty on every level.
“Like this, Sam.”
She slowly stood and reached for a syringe. After pushing it into a vial, she dangled the needle above Lana’s sleeping neck.
“It’s easy to deal with a few as opposed to the many.”
Zombie University (The Complete Series): How I Survived the Zombie Apocalypse Page 11