Click.
“Come out and put your hands up.”
“Please don’t shoot,” Val begged, huddling next to me and crying, playing her role well. She inched toward the man. “Please don’t hurt me,” she begged.
“I’m not gonna shoot you, honey,” he said.
“I heard you upstairs,” she said. “You’re looking for a girlfriend, huh? Well, blondes don’t have all the fun. If you let me go, I’ll show you.”
He relaxed his shoulders for a split second.
That was all the window Val needed to give him one swift, crippling kick to the nuts that sent him crashing to the ground. She then grabbed his weapon and knocked him out with the butt of the gun.
I made quick work of taking the rifle off his shoulder, happy to be armed again.
Suddenly, his brothers and friends came out of nowhere, and a volley of gunfire ensued.
“Shoot to kill, Dean!” Val yelled, shooting me a stern look. “Take ‘em out!” I knew it was a hard order to give, because she’d always been compassionate, but it was a live-or-die situation, and she didn’t want to mess around. When the first man charged, she aimed and fired.
For me, though, shooting at live targets was a lot harder for me than just shooting zombies, but they’d left us no other option; truly, it was self-defense. I took careful aim at everyone who came at us, trying to hit shoulders or legs, anything that would slow them down without killing them, and a bunch of them dropped like flies.
“I said shoot to kill,” Val said, then finished off the ones I’d missed. The cold, empty look in her eyes reminded me of the expression Nick often wore. She was a merciful, compassionate person, but when it came to saving her loved ones, she was a force to be reckoned with.
The remaining cannibals begged us to stop our defensive assault. Two men and one woman dropped their guns.
I covered Val while she kicked away their weapons, then picked them up and threw them in the back of the truck. She hurriedly gathered up the rest of the guns from the fallen and threw them in the truck as well.
“We surrender,” Rita said, her voice shaky.
“We want the keys to the truck,” I said. “Now!”
Rita looked at me, and her scowl deepened. “I did save you from that zombie back in the west wing, young man. See, I drugged that man a little too much, and it killed him. Too bad, because he had meaty thighs, and I could have made good use of him. I couldn’t let him dig his teeth into you though, not after I worked so hard to lure you in.”
“You wicked old witch!” Val screamed. “You need help.”
“I’m not wicked.” Rita said. “I’m just...this godforsaken zombie apocalypse has made me this way!” she roared.
Her lousy excuses wouldn’t garner her any sympathy from me, so I just shouted at the monster, “Gimme the keys to this truck, or there’s gonna be another victim of the apocalypse lying on your lawn, lady!”
“I have to go inside,” Rita said in a calm, reassuring voice.
I didn’t trust her for a minute, and neither did Val. I was sure if we let her go in there alone, she’d come out with a machinegun or an Uzi. For all I knew, the crazy old bat had a rocket launcher stashed in her quilt rack.
“Dean,” Val said, “go in with her and get the keys. Shoot her if she tries anything funny.”
“I don’t wanna leave you out here with these guys,” I said.
“Right,” she said, then quickly shot both of them in the chest. “There. Now you have nothing to worry about. Now go.”
Rita screamed and wept over one of the men. “How dare you? Have you no mercy?”
“Us? You’ve got dead people hanging in your barn, ready to be made into casserole! How’s that for mercy, lady?” Val asked sarcastically. “Now, if you don’t go get those keys for my brother, the zombies are gonna be feasting on your dead corpse when I make Swiss cheese of you right here!”
“We’re just trying to survive, like you,” she whined.
“And so are we,” I chimed in.
Val’s voice trembled. “Now you know the pain each and every family member felt when their loved one didn’t come back from your little bed-and-breakfast. I’m officially putting this cattle farm out of business.”
“We don’t eat for pleasure, just for survival,” she said.
“Maybe at first you did,” I said, “but you admitted yourself that you started to enjoy it. You’re twisted and sick. We’re all living in this world, dealing with all this, but we aren’t eating each other! You’re a freak, a monster, and there’s something wrong with you if you’d go to those lengths!”
“No! I’m a good person,” Rita argued.
“Tell that to the families of your victims,” Val screamed, getting angrier by the second, her face redder than I’d ever seen it before.
“Where’s the key, Rita?” I asked, waving my gun at the old woman.
“In the kitchen.”
“I suggest you be a little more specific, hag,” Val spat.
“It’s hanging on the key rack, behind my raincoat.”
I turned to my sister. “Go get it. I’ll watch Rita.”
She nodded and stormed into the house.
“Well? Are you gonna lecture me now about what a sick operation I run here?” Rita asked.
“I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person,” I said. “I read that on a coffee cup once, but it seems to apply here. You’re a freaking psychopath,” I said. “Nothing I could say would make you change your mind or feel any remorse.”
“Do you feel remorse when you eat a burger?” she asked. “Cows are killed the same way.”
“Human beings are not cows.”
Before Rita could utter another ridiculous word, Val came out. “I got the key!”
“Great. Now we can—”
Bang!
The second my attention was diverted, there was a gunshot, and Val collapsed to the grass next to one of the men she’d killed.
“Val!” I shouted.
Chapter 12
My sister was writhing in pain, shivering, and clutching her chest.
Rita then pointed the gun straight at me.
Just as I was about to lunge at her, the gun clicked empty. I rushed over and picked up Val.
Rita tried to grab another gun from the back of the truck, but she was startled by a series of zombie moans echoing through the air and knew she had a bigger problem to contend with then us. Rita’s own relatives were rising from the dead, and they were hungry for more human flesh. On top of that, our little gun battle had invited more to the dinner party, so several were moving in from all sides.
Seeing no point in wasting ammo to rescue a woman who would murder countless more people, I left Rita to her cruel fate. I lay Val in the passenger seat and shut the door, then started the engine.
“Don’t leave me!” Rita yelled. “My sons aren’t here to defend me!”
I threw the car in reverse and backed down the driveway. In the rearview mirror, I saw Rita run toward the house and bang on the door, with a hungry group of zombies, some of her own sons, gnashing their teeth behind her. Then a thought occurred to me. “Val,” I said. “Did you lock her out?”
She refused to answer me and stared straight ahead, as if in shock.
Taking that as my answer, I pressed the gas pedal, and we sped off.
“On the way here,” I said, “I saw a doctor’s office. We can raid it for supplies.”
“No. We can’t risk stopping. Just get to the apartment. The doctor there can take care of me.”
I gripped the steering wheel tightly. “That’s a pretty serious wound. Are you sure you can make it that far?”
Up ahead, a group of people armed with rifles was walking along the edge of the road. When they saw us, they tried to flag us down.
I slowed down, but Val grabbed my arm.
“Don’t you dare stop,” she said. “You shoulda learned by now that we can’t trust strangers, Dean. It’s been nothing but
a disaster for us. Just keep going. If they’re flagging us down, that means they have nothing, and they can’t help us. They might try to hijack the truck, and we’ve gotta get back to the complex.”
Reluctantly, I passed the group of survivors. If we hadn’t disbanded the cannibals back at Rita’s bed-and-breakfast, those poor people might have been Rita’s next meal. Ultimately, while I was leaving the travelers to fend for themselves, I felt good that we’d taken out dangerous predators that would have been their demise. In a way, we’d rescued them without them even knowing it, and I had to take some joy in that.
I sped as fast as the truck could go, hoping my brother and friends wouldn’t wake up in a daze, wondering why they were in the back of a speeding truck. I called Val’s name to check on her, but she didn’t respond. “Val?” I repeated.
No answer.
I had no idea what to do. I knew we needed to sanitize her wound and stop the bleeding, and she was probably in dire need of antibiotics, which I was sure the doctor at the complex was fresh out of, because he’d had to treat so many patients. In fact, antibiotics had been added to the list of supplies we’d been sent out to search for.
Ignoring Val’s advice to head all the way back to the complex, I pulled into the parking lot of the doctor’s office I’d seen. I looked around but didn’t see anything. I shut off the engine, debating about what I should do. I knew it was dangerous to go inside the building and very risky to leave Kate, Nick, and Lucas unconsciousness in the back of the cab, defenseless against any oncoming zombies. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Val was probably right and I should just head home.
Just as I was about to back up, a woman pointed a rifle at me.
I rolled down my window. “Look, I’m leaving. I only stopped to—”
“Get out!” she demanded.
I was sure she wanted my truck, and I didn’t want to shoot her, so I decided to floor it and try to speed away.
Just as I was about to pull out, she shot out my tire.
“Crap!” I yelled.
“Get out!” she repeated.
I now knew she meant business, and I feared Nick, Val, Lucas, or Kate could get caught in the crossfire so I had no choice but to cooperate. She didn’t look all that dangerous, and I was sure I could fight her if I had to to keep the truck. I slowly got out and held my hands high, only to notice that there were tears running down her face.
“Are you here to r-rob me?” she stuttered.
“No. I was trying to leave,” I said. “I don’t wanna cause any trouble.”
She aimed at my forehead, but her hand was shaky. “Were you gonna try to break in?”
“I desperately need medical supplies,” I said. “My sister’s been shot, and my three friends were drugged.”
She lowered her gun, and more tears streamed down her face. “Well, in that case, maybe we can help each other out,” she frantically said.
“How?” I asked.
“I’m a doctor. I can help you. I just want...something in return.”
I cocked a brow. “What?”
“I was just informed that my seventeen-year-old niece was left behind in a supply run. It wasn’t on purpose, but they were overrun by zombies at the Walgreen’s a few miles from here. If you rescue my niece, I’ll do my best to save your sister and the people who were drugged.”
“How do I know you’re really a doctor?” I questioned, not so ready to trust any stranger after the Rita fiasco.
“I guess you’ve just gotta trust me,” she said.
“Trust doesn’t come easy these days. Maybe you want to steal my truck.”
“I live here, and my name is Dr. Willows. I believe you’re in urgent need of a doctor.”
“Desperately,” I conceded.
“Then today’s your lucky day. I love my niece, but I can’t risk my life to go save her, or I’d do it myself. I have six children under the age of ten. If I die, they won’t have a mother anymore. I can’t leave them by themselves in this world. I just can’t. I won’t. I hope you understand. Give me your word that you’ll try to rescue my niece, and I’ll get straight to work on your sister,” she said, peering behind me at Val. “From the looks of it, you’d better hurry up and make up your mind.”
I sized the woman up, and my gut told me she was genuine. I didn’t know if I could trust my instincts, as my faith in myself was a bit tainted because of Rita, but I was generally a good judge of character. “Where is your niece exactly?” I asked.
“In an office in the back of the pharmacy. The good thing is that they don’t know she’s there...yet.”
“Hmm. Well, you drive a hard bargain, Doctor, but I guess I’d better hurry,” I said with a half-smile. “I’ll do all I can for your niece, and I’ll trust you to do the same for my sister.”
Chapter 13
Just as I was about to leave, Dr. Willows reached for my arm. “Wait! I need a little information before I treat your sister and friends. Help me get your sister and the others inside, and you can tell me what we’re dealing with.” She then called a group of other women, who eagerly offered their assistance.
“What happened?” a brunette asked.
“We have a gunshot victim,” Dr. Willows said, “and the others were drugged.” The doctor then looked at me. “Do you know what kind of drugs and how much?”
“I’m afraid I’ve got no idea. I think it was put in our food, but I didn’t eat as much as the rest of them,” I said.
The dark-haired woman looked at me. “My name is Suzy. I’m a nurse. I’ll need you to wait out here.”
I nodded.
She directed her attention to some of the others. “Put the drugged ones in beds in Room 6 and the gunshot victim in Room 10.”
After the others rushed off to prepare the rooms, another brunette with a clipboard began asking me questions. “Who is the gunshot victim?” she asked.
“Her name is Val,” I said. “I’m her brother, and so is Nick, one of the men who was drugged—the one with black hair and blue eyes. Why?”
“Because we may need blood for a transfusion.”
I filled the nurse in on all the information I knew. I even told her about Rita and everything we’d been through. My hands were shaking as I told the story.
Another woman on crutches tried to give me a glass of water and a white pill. “Take this. It’ll help you relax,” she said with a smile.
The whole thing reminded me too much of Rita, so I pushed her hands away. “No.”
“You don’t trust us?”
“Trusting strangers is how we got into this mess in the first place.”
“We’re not like them. We’re trying to help.”
I peered at her intently. “Well, I’ve been burned too much. I’ll calm down on my own, thanks. Why are you so eager to help us anyway? You don’t even know us.”
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
When another woman came in and saw the nurse holding the water and pills, she snatched them away. “No pills!” she said. “He’s going to rescue Megan.”
“Sorry. I-I didn’t know,” she replied.
I got up and started pacing. “Is Val gonna be okay?”
“We don’t know.”
“I want to see her before I go,” I demanded.
“Not just yet. Dr. Willows is trying to save her life.”
“Then let me see the others,” I insisted.
“As soon as we make sure they’re stabilized.”
“It was just drugs,” I said. “I had some, too, and I’m fine.”
“The dosage was high. The young woman is barely breathing.”
“Her name’s Kate,” I said. “The woman who gave us the drugs, this old lady named Rita, didn’t care if she overdosed them, because she planned to kill us anyway.”
“I’m so sorry this happened to you in our town. I know Rita and her sons, and I had no idea what they were up to. Don’t give up on your family and friends, Dean. We’ll do everyt
hing we can to save them.”
It seemed like an eternity passed before the doctor finally came out to give me an update. “Nick is going to be okay,” she said. “Turns out he was given a hefty dose of Valium.”
I sighed in relief.
“Lucas and Kate, however, ingested large amounts of GHB.”
I cocked a brow, as if she’d spoken to me in a foreign language.
She continued. “Gamma hydroxybutyric acid, or it could’ve been ketamine or even rohypnol.”
I’d heard of that before, and I knew it was a date-rape drug. “Are you telling me that old bag slipped us roofies?” I asked, shuddering.
“Basically, yes. You didn’t ingest enough of it to do much damage, but the others did. Strangely, Val isn’t suffering any effects from the drugs. Did she skip dinner?”
“Something like that,” I said, not ready to explain to the doctor that my sister was half-zombie.
“You said you live about an hour away?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
Her lips pressed into grim lines. “Val, Lucas, and Kate would’ve been dead if you didn’t stop here on the way back. You saved their lives by bringing them here.”
I gasped, and a deep sense of guilt flooded through me. Had they not pulled guns on me, I would have hightailed it out of there. Following Val’s advice would have cost them all their lives. The thought of that had me struggling to keep it together. “How’s Val?” I asked.
“I was able to remove the bullet,” the doctor said, “but to be honest, she’s barely hanging on.”
“If you need blood, you can use mine.”
“We used Nick’s,” she said. “He was a match.”
“Whew. Well, I’m thankful for that.”
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