Cry Zombie Cry (I Zombie Book 5)

by Jack Wallen

  “Come on, Morgan. She’s going to be out for a while and we all need to clean up and rest. I’ll check on her before bed.”

  “Are you kidding me? I’ll be sleeping in here with her.”

  Morgan caught my concerned stare.

  “She’s had a hard enough life. Her family, cancer…Rizzo’s spent so much time fighting back death and seeing those she loved turn their backs when she needed them most. It’s time someone was there for her. We all need to know someone is looking out for us. I’m going to be that someone this time.”

  I wrapped my arms around Morgan and held her tight. She was a fighter, one of the strongest women I’d ever known, but everyone, at some point, needs a moment of weakness.

  “Thank you, Bethany…for everything.”

  I started to leave when a phone chime called me back. Morgan furrowed her brow and grabbed the sat phone from her waist. She depressed the answer button and placed the call on speaker.

  “This is Morgan. Copy.”

  “…José…have…baby…I’m en route to drop…”

  My breath and heart momentarily stopped.

  “This is Morgan, repeat.”

  Static.

  “José, do you copy?”

  “Roger. I have the baby and am en route to the drop off zone. I lost my entire crew, am alone, and on foot. I need backup now.”

  Morgan shot a look of joyful surprise at me. My lungs reminded me they needed oxygen and my chest spasmed.

  “Roger that. I’ll have a unit waiting for you. Out.”

  Before Morgan said a word to me, she dialed a number on the sat phone and instructed the closest unit to immediately report to the drop off zone. When she hung up, neither of us could hold back the flood of joyful tears. Jacob had finally been wrestled from the clutches of the sinister nation. I would have my baby back. I kissed Morgan on the cheek and raced out to find Jamal.

  *

  “Oh my God, Bethany, that is…I can’t imagine how you feel.” Jamal’s grin was a mile wide. He wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me into the air. As my feet returned to the floor our lips connected and remained to enjoy the warmest, most meaningful kiss to ever grace my mouth.

  “In one fell swoop we took down the Zero Day Collective drop-ships and rescued my child. Jamal, is this really happening? I’m not going to wake up in the morning to find out all of my nightmares had turned into one wonderful dream, only to have it shattered as soon as the light seeps between my eyelids? Please tell me this is real.”

  “It’s as real as you are brilliant. At some point in the next couple of days you will be reunited with Jacob and we’ll begin planning our next attack—”

  “No,” I interrupted. “I don’t want to plan anything at the moment. I just want to be. We can remain here for a while—regain some semblance of sanity and remind ourselves that we are still human. We’ve spent so much time improvising our way through this; it’s time we organized. If we put our brains together with Morgan and Josh’s survival skills, the Zero Day Collective won’t stand a chance.”

  I so badly wanted to melt into Jamal’s embrace. The second the thought crossed my mind, my breathing dove deep into the realm of dreams. The next thing I knew, Jamal had lifted me in his arms and carried me into the sanctuary and laid me on my pew. When the blanket rested on my shoulders I looked up into Jamal’s eyes and smiled.

  “I love you, Jamal.”

  “I love you, Bethany.”

  A single kiss sent me off into a world of dreams.

  chapter 33 | wild horses

  It was the first time I’d slept through the night without being tossed into nightmare theatre. I woke completely refreshed—an altogether foreign concept since the zombies had begun mingling with reality. I sat up in my pew and the scent of dark, earthy coffee wafted my way. As I neared the kitchen area, laughter greeted my ears. The sound stopped me in my tracks. It had been so long since I’d heard the sound of joy. I felt human, alive.

  When I entered the kitchen I was met with cheers and a mug of hot, black gold. The bitter liquid warmed my core and brought me to life.

  Once the coffee had my eyes fully open, the first thing I noticed was Morgan’s hair.

  “Oh my God, Morgan, when did you—?”

  Morgan grinned. “I know, right? This morning. Josh and I were talking and realized my standard issue ponytail had become nothing more than a leash for the undead to grab onto. So, I handed him a pair of scissors and…” She struck an adorable pose. Her hair was choppy, just past her ears, with bangs that would eat a hipster girl for breakfast and mock her with an irony only the truly hip would get.

  “Brave woman. It’s adorable! Josh, I’m next.”

  Josh bowed his head and smiled.

  Morgan grinned. “I’ve got good news, Bethany.”

  “Other than your fabulous new look? What is it?”

  “Jacob is on his way here. He should arrive within the next three to four hours.”

  Thanks to the chaotic battlefield that had become of my emotions, I wept. This time, however, the tears were a celebration of hope. I knew the second that baby was in my arms nothing could hurt me again. It would stand as the final sign that the Zero Day Collective had failed to break me. With Jacob returned, we’d won, and nothing could take that away.

  Jamal held up his mug. “To Bethany.”

  I offered mine up. “No, to us. We wouldn’t have made it through this without a collective effort. Thank you all so much for being a part of my life.”

  “Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Morgan said. Josh nodded in agreement.

  Echo rushed me and wrapped her skinny arms around my waist. “I love you, Bethany.”

  Jamal grabbed my coffee so I could return the hug. The second my arms encompassed Echo, she released a sigh the likes I’d never witnessed.

  “I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you.”

  I pulled back and looked the girl in the eyes. “I think it was you who saved me.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Morgan asked.

  Jamal shook his head. “No plan…at least not now. We’re going to take a break from fighting wars and just be. Franklin and his group have offered to remain and help us rebuild this place into something a bit more stable. It might take a while, but the routine might do our souls some good.”

  Morgan lifted her mug and nodded. “That’s the best plan I’ve heard in a while.”

  *

  The hours passed slowly—slower than I ever remembered time ticking by. I suppose the anticipation of having Jacob back in my arms caused the time dilation. Moments like these made me wish I could jump back in time and have a chat with the good sir, Einstein. He’d argue my situation had nothing to do with dilation. I’d comb his hair, give him a hug, and challenge him to a game of chess.

  At least that would pass the time until my baby arrived. If ever I needed a distraction, it was now.

  *

  “You’re listening to WZMB, Zombie Radio. Your personal sound…track, to the end of the world. That was The High Violets and ‘Chinese Letter.’ A shoegazer of a song, if ever I’ve heard one. I spent the better part of the nineties gazing at my scruffy Doc Martens wishing like hell I could muster up the courage to ask out a particularly delightful wallflower who I knew only by the name…Lizzy. She was an odd mixture of goth, librarian, J-pop, and waif. I know, I know…it sounds crazy but it worked. But alas, I never took the necessary leap of faith to get me to the other side of that dark and stormy chasm.

  “Speaking of leaps of faith—let’s talk about Rip Vanity and the Metal Meltdown known only as Arise. What looked as if it would be the Woodstock for the new world order turned into a nightmare of tragic proportions. Of course, the Zero Day Collective was behind the disaster. Hopefully, those rat bastards will pay for what they’ve done. But before the barrage of bullets strafed the flesh of the living audience, before the undead horde attempted to break living bread with one another…there was music. The bands were epic and the
music was pure metal; but every note, every lyric paled in comparison to one particular song—what will most likely become the anthem of our age, ‘Cry Zombie Cry,’ by UnSun. Aya and company unleashed that beast for the first time ever during the festival, and WZMB was one of the only stations to get a direct feed of the song. And so, for the first time ever, I want to premier for the Zombie Radio Nation a song written for Bethany Nitshimi and the rest of the survivors of the Mengele Virus, UnSun’s ‘Cry Zombie Cry.’”

  Hearing the song again had the same effect on me as it did when Aya belted out the lyrics on stage. This time, however, there was the added air of pride. I never thought I would see the day that a song was written for me. I closed my eyes to get lost within the warp and weft of the song. The notes and the lyrics danced behind my eyelids and over my eardrums. I could have remained here forever, letting the music wash over my body and my soul.

  In the split second of silence between the last fading note of the song and the Kirk-like rhythms of the Zombie Radio DJ, a sound tickled my heart. When I opened my eyes, Echo stood in the doorway…holding Jacob. My baby. His big brown eyes stared at me, as if for the first time.

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t laughter of the mind, but a laughter of the heart. I reached out my arms and crossed to Echo, who handed Jacob over.

  “My baby. My sweet, innocent baby.”

  The smell of Jacob’s head rushed my senses like the purest cocaine. He cooed. I cried. Echo joined the emotional trampoline, which ended with all of us laughing out of pure joy.

  From the radio came the Sundays’s remake of the Rolling Stones classic, “Wild Horses.” I couldn’t help but allow the meaning to wallop me upside the head. I slow-danced Jacob around the room, his tiny baby laughs squealing from his innocent and miraculous lips.

  When I went to lay Jacob down, I realized we didn’t have a crib. I sent Echo off in search of something, anything, that could be used to secure Jacob as he slept. For the moment, he was safe in my arms and it would take wild horses to drag him away.

  He lay on my chest, his breathing in sync with mine. My heart beat, at last, with ease.

  chapter 34 | and baby makes…

  Faddig stared across his desk at Drs. Otte and Karem. Both men were flush with nerves, unsure if the commander would snap and end their existence prematurely.

  “So tell me, doctors, we’ve pretty much failed completely this time around. From what I gather, there isn’t a single positive to take away from this mission. If that’s the case, I have to say I lay the full extent of the blame on your heads.”

  Doctor Otte began to protest. Faddig slammed his hands onto his desk and shouted.

  “Not now, doctor. You will listen to what I have to say and then I will decide if you deserve to attempt a feeble defense of your actions.”

  Faddig stood and leaned forward on his desk.

  “I was handed the reins of the Zero Day Collective because of my record of success. I was a proven entity. Failure had yet to creep into my vocabulary…that is, until now. Thanks to your incapable hands I have managed to lead the single biggest failure in the history of the Zero Day Collective. I lost an entire battalion of undead soldiers, three drop-ships, my best pilots, and to make matters worse…the Genesis Cradle wasn’t even released. Not one element of this plan succeeded.”

  Doctor Otte raised his hand nervously.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Otte, this isn’t elementary school. Speak up.”

  “That is not altogether true…sir.”

  Faddig sucked in a deep, threatening breath.

  “What exactly do you mean by that?”

  “The baby, sir—”

  Again, Faddig slammed his hands onto his desk and shouted.

  “They reclaimed the goddamn baby, you jackass. I saw the video feed of Jacob being taken away with my own fucking eyes.”

  Otte spoke again, a crooked smile creeping across his face. “That may seem to be what you saw. But the baby the ZRT rescued was not the Jacob Plummer they were expecting.”

  Faddig sat slowly. “I’m listening.”

  Otte leaned forward and whispered. “The baby they recovered was a clone. We have the original in the lab unit. We are very close to unraveling the secret of its DNA.”

  The commander released a gut-wrenching laugh. Finally, he returned to his usual over-severe countenance.

  “And exactly what does Bethany having a clone of her child do for us?”

  It was Doctor Karem’s turn to speak.

  “Although the clone may seem identical, there are subtle differences in the makeup of the DNA. Most significant is the lack of immunization to the Mengele Virus.”

  Faddig sobered up immediately. “Wait, are you saying the baby Bethany has doesn’t hold the immunity within its DNA?”

  Karem’s smile spread wide across his face. “That is exactly what we are saying. If Bethany attempts to process a cure from Jacob’s DNA, it’ll never work.”

  Commander Faddig stood and stared upward, into the cold fluorescent tubes of light. “You may very well have just saved your lives.”

  “There’s more,” Karem said.

  Faddig nodded. “Continue.”

  “The clone is chipped. We’ll soon know their exact whereabouts.”

  chapter 35 | the devil you know

  I woke from an unexpected nap to find Jamal hovering over the makeshift crib.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Don’t worry, I’m testing a theory.”

  My legs protested as I stood, my eyes glazed with the delicate film of sleep. “Oh no; no theories are tested on my son without my permission.”

  Jamal stood and turned, the look in his eyes not exactly what I was hoping to see. When I raised my eyebrows, he immediately raised his hands into a defensive posture.

  “Busted, Jamal. What gives?”

  “Bethany, you have to trust me on this. You might think me paranoid, but this baby was held hostage by the devil incarnate. They held him, tested him…we may never know the extent of what they did. At the moment, my main concern is that he’s not bugged or being traced. Maybe it was their plan all along—get Jacob back into our care so they could track us down and kill us in our sleep.”

  The air was slowly sucked from my lungs. I so desperately wanted to shoot down Jamal’s theory. Unfortunately, he was right; the Zero Day Collective was in no way above using a baby as bait.

  “This wand is nothing more than a multifrequency detector. If Jacob is giving off any signal, we’ll know it immediately.”

  Jamal handed me the wand so I could give it the once over.

  “You know I trust you implicitly.” I handed back the wand. “Go ahead.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I nodded.

  “Do you want to be here for this?”

  Again, I nodded.

  Jamal switched the wand on. A soft blue glow lit up the tip of the device and a hissing sound gently poured from an embedded speaker. Even before the wand was within three feet of Jacob, the alarm sounded.

  Every delicate thread of peace within my body was instantly burned to ash. In its place…rage.

  I gently lifted Jacob from the crib and unwrapped him from his swaddling. Jamal had the perfect view of Jacob’s back and immediately reacted.

  “Fuck, Bethany,” was all he had to say.

  I turned Jacob around to see the suture on the back of his right arm. It was fresh.

  “We have to remove that, now,” Jamal said.

  Something in the recesses of my memory begged to be heard. I let my brain sift through the last year of my life to recall what caused me to break out into a sweat. It didn’t take my brain long to land on the memory of Commander Leamy.

  “Shit,” I whispered. “Jamal, I knew someone who was tagged by the Zero Day Collective. The ZDC operative warned him if he tried to remove the implant, it would release the Mengele Virus into his system and then explode. We have to do something.”

  “The firs
t issue is non-extant, right? Jacob is immune to the virus.” Jamal stared, his pupils dilating, his eyes darting about. I gave him the moment he needed to complete whatever thoughts he was piecing together. It took little time before his glazed-over gaze returned to me. “That leaves only the explosion to deal with.”

  I wrapped Jacob and placed him back into the makeshift crib. “No. I’m sorry, Jamal, but I’m not taking any chance with my baby; immune or not, we come up with an alternative.”

  “Simple.” Jamal began scratching notes on a piece of paper. “I’m going to create a blanket of RF interference that will prevent any signal from leaving Jacob. That will temporarily prevent them from tracking us. In the meantime, I’ll figure out a way to get that device out of him.”

  An idea hit me fast and hard.

  “How difficult would it be for you to create an exact duplicate of the signal being transmitted from that chip? If you can do that, we can lead the Zero Day Collective astray.”

  A smile slowly bent the corners of Jamal’s lips upward. “Bethany, words cannot describe your brilliance.”

  Jamal returned his wand to his hand and made a few minor adjustments. As he waved it around Jacob’s arm, the noise fluctuated and crackled. Eventually he gave a glance at the wand’s readout.

  “Oh, that’s sad; they couldn’t even encrypt the signal. I can have a duplicate ready in twenty minutes. Do you have an idea how you want to lead them astray?”

  “Do I ever.”

  *

  It didn’t take us long to locate our target. We drove well outside the city limits of New Salt Lake City until we found a small horde of zombies.

  “Get me close enough that I can stick one of them with the plug.”

  In his hand, Jamal held a metal rod. At the end of the rod was a barbed point that contained the RF transmitter. One quick stick with the rod and the transmitter would be buried in the rotting flesh of the beast. As far as the Zero Day Collective was concerned, Jacob was slowly moving about the state of Utah. Hopefully the zombie and his friends would keep walking until they were a few states away.