“I would never hurt anybody!” Tahoe said, shaking his head vehemently. “It was all Earl! I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. If I didn’t help him and do what he said, he would have killed me too!”
“Not a loss,” Claire whispered. “The girl lived.”
He gasped. “What? How? I-I mean that’s wonderful, but how? Where is she? I’d like to personally apologize.”
“Let’s bandage him up,” Jackie said. “Give him some food and water and a weapon. Whatever happens after that is his problem.”
“You want to waste our precious supplies on this loser?” Nick asked.
Jackie stepped toward him, her eyes sparkling with determination. “Yes. I don’t want to have his demise on our conscience. That’s the only thing that makes us any more human than those things out there, isn’t it?”
Nick waved his gun in the air. “This jerk almost cost my sister her life!”
“Listen, Nick…”
“No, Claire! If he and his friend hadn’t stopped us, we could’ve made it out in the nick of time, before the herd came around to the front of the house.”
Claire shook her head vehemently. “That’s not entirely true, and you know it. I slowed you down in the first place. If you hadn’t stayed there long enough to convince us to come with you, you would’ve been long gone.”
“That’s different.”
A dangerous glint appeared in her eyes. “Why?”
Nick ran a hand through his hair as he contemplated her answer. “Because you didn’t try to kill my sister,” he said after a moment.
Claire’s shoulders slumped. She was losing the argument, right or wrong, and she knew it. Whether we wanted it or not, Nick would make the final decision.
“Claire, Jackie, you can’t just leave me here,” Tahoe pleaded. “Zombies will shred me to pieces. Earl’s a psychopath and told me he’d kill me countless times. I believed him after I saw the things he’d done in the past. But he was my uncle and I couldn’t leave him.”
“Oh, you’re good,” Nick said. “Go on, storyteller. Humor us.”
“No, really! It’s all true. My father’s the chief of police and I was going to tell him all about Earl.”
“Right,” I said.
“I swear I’m telling you the truth. Earl and I left the city to go pick up family members stranded in another state. We got sidetracked trying to lose a herd. I planned on getting back home, zombie apocalypse or not.”
He was good at making up stories, but none of us believed Tahoe for a second.
“Do you really have the heart to kill a cop’s son?” he said. “Not to mention, I have a wife and twin girls. Please think of them before you do anything to me.”
“If I was you,” Nick said, “I might’ve tried telling the story with one kid. It’s way more believable than twins.”
“Please think of my girls,” Tahoe added. “They have beautiful blonde hair like their mama. If you met my babies, you’d instantly fall in love with them.”
I raised my brows at him when he tried to play the sympathy card. I was sure no one in our group could possibly fall for such a tall tale, yet I could tell Jackie was softening— her frown and the angry crease in her forehead disappeared, and her hands clutched into fists at her side as she turned to regard Nick. “We need to get going.” I said. “Having an argument out here is bound to draw attention—and not the positive kind.”
Nick nodded and took another step toward Tahoe, but Claire jumped in front of him as if to block Nick from shooting him. “He has nobody to look out for him!” she said. “You know what would’ve happened if no one had helped me in my time of need? I’d be dead.”
Nick let out a long breath. “Fine. Get the medical kit, Dean.”
I sighed. Is he seriously caving just because of a pretty face? Then again, I didn’t care. I just wanted to do whatever we were doing so we could get the heck outta there. When I grabbed the first aid kit, Claire snatched it out of my hand and began tending to Tahoe’s wounds.
“Hurry up. We don’t have time for this,” Nick said. “Every minute we stick around here just makes a bigger target on our backs.”
“Then help us get him into the Jeep so we can leave,” Claire snapped.
“No,” I said. “Nick’s right. Tahoe can’t come with us. He’s a liar and nothing but trouble. Tend to his wounds like you wanted, and we’ll give him a little food and water and some kind of weapon to defend himself, but that’s all we’re going to do for him.”
“Check him for any scratches or bites,” Jackie said.
Tahoe wiped a sleeve across his eyes. “I wasn’t bitten. Earl stabbed me. The zombies were on my butt, and I saw the rear hatch wide open from where you were packing supplies. I threw out the stuff in my way and I squeezed into the compartment then shut the door. If I would’ve climbed into the back seat, they would’ve seen me. My idea worked. The dummies had no idea where I went.”
“And how did you plan on getting out?” I asked.
“I didn’t think that far ahead. I just wanted to get away from them.”
“Wow,” Nick said in a sarcastic tone. “You’re pretty smart for a cop’s son.”
“All I knew was that I couldn’t outrun them,” Tahoe said. “I was bleeding, and I didn’t have the energy to hotwire the Jeep. I was about to pass out. I knew if I fainted in the Jeep, the zombies would’ve broken in and eaten me. I thought it would be safer to try and hide in the storage compartment, and I must have passed out and not woken up till now.”
“He’s coming with me,” Claire said, determined. “Cut out the tough guy act and try to show a little compassion, because there’s nothing you can do about it.” As though to prove their point, Claire and Jackie helped Tahoe up.
When he hobbled over and climbed inside their Jeep, I knew there was no changing their minds; we were stuck with him.
Nick’s eyes blazed as he pulled Claire aside. “Have you lost your freaking mind?” I could tell that he was a bit miffed at her outright defiance, but the girl had a mind of her own.
“What if he hurts you?” I said.
“Just look at him.” Jackie pointed at Tahoe, now slumped over the back seat. “He’s a conman, not a murderer. We can handle him. I really don’t think he’ll hurt us. He’s barely in any condition to breathe, let alone anything else.”
“True,” I said, “but what if he dies? It takes up to five days to turn into a zombie from a bite or scratch, but if one dies, it’s immediate. You need to know that.” I didn’t even want to think about what might happen to the girls if he turned and attacked them.
Jackie’s eyes grew wide. “He won’t. I grabbed the medical kit, some antibiotics, and pain pills. But just to be safe, I’ll let Claire drive. I’ll watch him closely. If he dies, I’ll shoot him straight in the head.”
I pulled her close. “No! This is a bad idea, Jackie—a really, really bad idea.”
“I just can’t stand by and leave somebody in this condition in such a horrible, lonely, scary place. Please try to understand.” She kissed my cheek and hopped in the passenger side.
“It’d make me feel safer if you at least tied him up,” I said.
“We can handle it.” Claire turned the key and started the ignition. “We’ll be right behind.”
“Change of plans,” I said, peering in through the open window. “Tahoe’s coming with us in our Jeep whether Nick likes it or not. That way I know you two will be safe.”
Jackie shook her head vehemently. “Nope! Not happenin’. Nick will use any little excuse to kill him and you know it.”
“Then we move onto Plan B,” I said.
“What’s that?” Claire asked.
“Hey, Nick,” I yelled. “I’m riding with the girls.”
“Okay, that’s fine. See if Claire wants to ride with me?”
“Yeah, I want to ride with him,” Claire said, opening the door, when Jackie grabbed her arm.
“No you don’t,” Jackie said. “
They’re insisting a guy needs to be in each Jeep. We’re strong, independent women. We can handle a Jeep just as well as they can.” She looked up at me. “I killed that zombie with a bat because I was trying to make a point. From this moment on, I can take care of myself. And I don’t need a guy to protect me ever again.”
“I’m just trying to keep you safe from a psychopath,” I said. “So here’s Plan C. You know I won’t kill Tahoe, so he and I will ride in my Jeep and Nick can ride with you two.”
“I like it,” Claire said.
“I don’t,” Jackie said. “Again, he feels like a man has to be with us so we’re safe. Go back to your Jeep, Dean, and please trust me that I can handle this.”
A moan echoed from the trees as a zombie stumbled out of the vegetation toward us.
“Get in the Jeep, Dean. Now!” Nick said. He then shot the zombie with perfect aim. “We don’t have time to stand out here arguing. Listen, they’re big girls. They can make their own decisions.”
I ran back to my Jeep and jumped in, slamming the door. “They’re trying to be all independent now,” I said.
“Not again,” Nick said, peering out the window. “Their Jeep just stalled.”
We definitely needed to find them better transportation. I let out a sigh of relief as the Jeep suddenly turned over.
Biting my lip hard, I struggled with the decision of leaving the girls with a possible zombie.
“At least we know Val’s safe with us,” Nick said, shooting her a glance over his shoulder. “We need to stick with the mission and save Val. It’s easy to get sidetracked, but we have to stay focused for her sake.” I opened my mouth to argue my point, but my brother raised a hand to stop me and continued, “Today has been a horrible nightmare, and I’m dead tired. Let’s just go and leave it at that.”
The crease on his forehead deepened, and worry wrinkles had emerged around his eyes. He was tired, and I didn’t want to add to his problems, so I pressed my lips shut and made myself comfortable in my seat. I wasn’t happy about the girls letting Tahoe ride with them, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Chapter 15
The highway was one long strip stretching out into the night, illuminated only by our headlights and the rising moon above. Sitting in the passenger seat, with my head pressed against the cold, smooth window, I stared at the road ahead, my mind scattered in a million directions. I knew I should try to get some sleep, in case I had to relieve Nick from driving, but for some reason, any shred of fatigue seemed to have eluded me. Every now and then, my gaze moved to the rearview mirror to check on Claire and Jackie, following in the second Jeep with Tahoe for a passenger. With nothing stirring, silence engulfed us, just three siblings. Siblings. Brothers and sister. It sounded strange to me. Up until recently, it had been just Nick and me. Never in a million years would I have guessed that might change, but then Val came along, and just like that, we had a sister. I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.
My brother suddenly rolled down the window, jolting me out of my thoughts. “I can’t stand the stink in here. We need to get a clean dressing on Val’s wound before it turns completely nasty.”
“We don’t have to stop out here. I’ll do it while you’re driving,” I said, crawling into the back seat. I dug around for the medical kit we’d snagged from the glass house. Inside it, I found all the necessary sterile bandages, antiseptic, and tape.
Suddenly, our sister awoke and sat up.
I stopped, unsure how she’d react to me looking at her wound.
“You’re changing my bandage?” she asked groggily. “Because Jackie gave me a new one while I was driving.”
“Yeah? Well, we need to put a fresh one on again,” I said, clearing my throat. “It’s, uh…it looks like it’s seeped through.”
“Just be sure to wear gloves,” she said, pointing to the medical kit. “We don’t want to take any chances of you getting infected.”
“Yeah,” I said quietly. In silence, I grabbed a pair of latex gloves, tore the packaging open, and pulled them on with a snap, just like a surgeon.
“Ready?” she said, pulling her sleeve up. When I nodded, she switched on the flashlight and held it up, instructing me step by step on how to cleanse and change the bandage like she’d done seemingly a million times before.
As I worked, the scent of foul flesh intensified. Taking in shallow breaths, I followed Val’s instructions to a T, then threw some tape on it and smiled. Back when we first met, she’d hinted at having some basic medical knowledge, but I’d never had the chance to ask about that. I sensed it was now a good time to learn more about her. “What did you used to do—you know, before all of this?”
“I was a cop,” she said, looking at me with an amused expression, as if anticipating my reaction.
It wasn’t what I expected her to say, but it did make perfect sense. “I should’ve known by the way you handle a gun,” I said. “So where did you get your medical knowledge from?”
“I was engaged to a doctor,” she whispered. “His name was Travis. I used to help him change bandages at the clinic. Infected people swarmed that place. His staff was swamped when the outbreak happened, so he had no choice but to let me assist him, even though he didn’t want to and we argued for hours whenever the chance presented itself.”
Nick glanced over his shoulder. “Our hospitals, doctors’ offices, and clinics in South Carolina were also teeming with people who wanted help and demanded to know what was going on.”
“Yeah, I imagine every medical facility across the world was jam-packed just like ours. So, whether Travis wanted it or not, I helped out at the clinic when my shifts were over.”
“That’s dedication,” Nick said.
“Yeah, well, we didn’t know what was going on at the time. Travis was so sure he could help them, and I was naïve enough to believe him.”
She seemed sad to talk about him, and I wondered what had happened between them. Did things go sour and not work out, or was he killed when the zombie thing went down? I didn’t have the nerve to ask, but she must’ve sensed my interest, because it didn’t take long to get my answer.
She pressed her lips into a grim line. “He’s dead. He never shoulda been at the clinic with all those infected people. I still can’t believe we were treating zombie victims like real people. They wanted nothing more than to rip our heads off. How could we have been so stupid?”
“You couldn’t have known,” I said softly, “but what you were trying to do was admirable.”
“If only we had known what we were really dealing with, maybe things would have turned out differently. If only I could go back in time and save him.”
“I’m so sorry, Val.” Even though nothing I could say or do would ease my sister’s pain, I leaned in and rubbed her back gently in the hopes that she might draw some relief from it.
Her voice quivered. “They’re all dead—all my family in Philadelphia and most of the people I’ve ever known. I thought I’d lost my entire family until I met you. Now, you guys are all I have left. I thought I couldn’t lose more until zombies broke into my home and killed my dogs. That was the moment when I knew I couldn’t stay in Philadelphia. I had to get the heck outta there, or else I would’ve been next.”
“Pennsylvania?” I asked.
“Yep. Born and raised.” She nodded and smiled, her gaze turning distant. “When I found adoption papers by accident, I was shocked. I demanded answers, and my adoptive parents finally told me about my past and about you. A few weeks later, they died. I spent months traveling around, trying to find you, slaying I don’t know how many zombies in my path.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a crumbled Christmas card, then handed it to me.
With trembling fingers, I reached for it and recognized it immediately. “Nick, this picture is of us, last year at Christmas,” I said, passing it to my brother.
He glanced at it briefly, his gaze barely brushing it. “The Christmas card with those goofy Santa hats Mom ma
de us wear? Come on! That was so freaking embarrassing.”
“Yeah.” I studied our bright smiles and glowing faces. We were so happy. I shook my head and swallowed the lump in my throat. “How did you get this?”
Slowly, the words tumbled out of her mouth. “Your…er, our mom sent it to me.”
I gasped, shocked beyond belief. “When did she find you?”
She reached for the Christmas card. Her eyes glazed over, as though she’d lost herself in memories. “We’d been talking for only a few weeks, barely able to share much about our lives, when the epidemic destroyed everything, from the police force to the postal service and radio stations, and we lost touch. At first, the phone lines went dead. When the letters stopped arriving, I feared the worst.”
“Mother talked to you? I don’t believe it,” Nick whispered, in just as much shock as I was.
“That picture kept me going on my long journey from Philadelphia to that island in Ohio,” Val said, her hand still clutching the photo. With shaky fingers, she brushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes and continued, “After I got in touch with our mom, she begged me to relocate with you in South Carolina. That was right before the whole zombie thing happened and you left South Carolina to come to the island to join Grandma.”
I nodded, thinking back and remembering how hard it was to leave our old lives behind.
“She said she wanted us to meet and start from scratch, so I went through this zombie-infested landscape in order to be with my new family.”
“I’m so glad you did, Val,” I said. “Meeting you is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’ve always wanted a sister.”
She grinned. “And I’ve always dreamt of having some little brothers.”
“Have you met Grandma?” Nick asked casually.
“Yes,” Val said. “As a matter of fact, she was the one who called me when we realized the virus was a full-blown zombie dilemma that might just wipe out the world. She told me to get my butt out of Pennsylvania and move to the island, but we stayed behind because we thought we could change something. We were wrong. We should have listened to Grandma.”
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