Zeke let out a whoop and jumped out of the engine room, his katana over his head. D-Day hopped down a second later.
Wayne led Jen to the doorway. "I'll help you down."
Jen pushed him. "I can do it myself."
He grinned and climbed to the ground.
She jumped, almost losing her balance as her feet hit the gravel, but Wayne stayed back.
In full ninja mode, Zeke sliced an arm off one zombie, then spun and beheaded another. In contrast with his grace, D-Day bulled his way through the horde. He slammed the machete blade through one zombie's skull, then kicked another away before he bashed a third in the temple with the machete's handle.
More zombies fell as bullets flew from the terminal.
The terminal.
Jen pulled her tomahawk and stumbled toward the yellow building. Zeke and D-Day were keeping the front edge of the horde back and she was going to take advantage of the head start.
Coming around the front of the engine, a large woman with long steel-gray hair lurched toward her. Jen timed the zombie's movements with her own and swung sidearm, punching the pointed end of the tomahawk into the zombie's skull just behind an eye. The zombie fell against the engine and slid to the ground. I'm getting the hang of this weapon.
Wayne rushed to her and she let him lead her to the terminal's far side, where the troopers were positioned. They ceased firing as Jen and Wayne got closer then rushed out to help them to safety.
Jen leaned against the building, finally catching her breath. She looked up as Zeke and D-Day dashed around the corner.
"Is that everyone?" a sergeant asked.
Jen nodded. Five troopers shot into the horde. "Are there more of you?"
"On their way," the sergeant said.
"You've got to be kidding," D-Day growled.
Slipping the tomahawk back in its holster, Jen walked out from the side of the building. The horde of about fifty zombies stampeded toward them. She pulled her pistol and emptied a magazine of fourteen rounds, only killing five. Shit. Still shaky.
D-Day, Wayne, and Zeke joined her, and the charging horde was destroyed in minutes.
The sergeant walked over. "Thanks for the assist."
"That's not all of them," Jen said.
"What do you mean?"
D-Day nodded. "She's right. That was about one car's worth. And there are ten cars."
"They had to have gone into the woods," Zeke said.
The sergeant walked away and spoke into a radio, his face grim. He came back a minute later. "You folks need to get somewhere safe while we clear the area."
Jen scowled. "I need to get something out of the train first. Then we'll start it back up and finish the trip to Boston."
"I'm afraid that's not going to happen," the sergeant said.
Jen removed her badge from her back pocket and held it up. "I'm afraid it is."
The sergeant's jaw tightened, but he gave her a curt nod.
Jen strode toward the train. Feeling like my old self again.
D-Day took position on her right and Wayne lined up on her left. Zeke took the rear.
Jen stopped outside the doorway to the first car. "Zeke comes in with me and you two stand watch out here."
D-Day nodded. Wayne frowned and nodded.
Jen entered the car with her tomahawk cocked back. No sign of anyone.
Zeke crept up the aisle, and Jen followed. She checked the seats in each row, and the floor beneath them.
They reached the front of the car. "Nothing," she said. "I was sure it was here."
She strode to the door and stuck her head out. "Not here. Going to the second car."
Wayne and D-Day positioned themselves by the outside door to the second car.
Jen stepped through the doorway between the cars and walked down the aisle checking each seat. She stopped about halfway through and squinted at something on the floor at the other end of the car. Is that what I think it is?
"Found it." She ran to the pouch. It lay next to the doorway to the third car.
She knelt and picked it up. The strap was missing the buckle. "Sure as shit, it must've been stripped from my waist during all the action."
Pulling the zipper open, she looked back at Zeke walking toward her with one of his big goofy smiles. His jaw dropped and his eyes threatened to pop out of his head. "Jen." He sprinted toward her.
Hot coals burned into her forearm. She jerked her head around. A chunk of flesh and muscle had been ripped away, the grotesque wound wet and bloody. The edges of the wound turned black and spread up her arm as she watched.
A legless zombie lay on the floor chewing its prize.
Jen scrambled backward, then lost her balance and slammed to the floor. Zeke dashed past her. "No," he screamed.
His katana flashed and removed the zombie's head in one stroke. He knelt next to Jen, holding her wounded arm. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I was supposed to protect you."
D-Day and Wayne rushed in and came to a stop, their eyes telling Jen what they were thinking.
"You have to kill me," she said.
Wayne looked away. D-Day's eyes grew cold and steely. He's working himself up to it.
A burning shock of pain exploded throughout her body and she screamed, her back arching. "The poison's moving fast. Do it now. I don't want to hurt any of you."
Zeke turned away for a moment, then back. He held a hypodermic needle.
Another flood of fire traced down Jen's spine. She gasped. Unable to speak, she shook her head at Zeke. Don't waste it.
Tears streaming from his red-rimmed eyes, Zeke plunged the needle into Jen's undamaged arm and depressed the plunger.
The serum entered her veins as cold as glacier water. The fire in the other arm had reached her shoulder. The icy serum shot up her vein and into her heart just as the poison reached the beating organ.
Jen screamed as they collided. Her heart seized and her body convulsed. Searing pain covered every inch of her body and the smell of dead flesh invaded her mind.
I'm turning.
17
Jen floated in pitch black nothingness. No sense of sight, sound, or touch. Am I dead?
A voice in her head answered. "No. You are with us."
So I'm alive? Who are you? Where am I?
"You are neither dead or alive."
Fuck you. I'm not a zombie. My friends would've kept me from that.
"True. You're also not undead. You are a fascinating bridge between us and living humans."
Where am I?
"In our group consciousness."
What is that? And who the hell are you?
"Time for you to awaken and discover your fate."
WHO ARE YOU?
"You know the answer to that. I was so sad to see you fly away from Fairchild just as I and my troops arrived."
Jen's eyes slitted open. Blurry figures leaned over her. They were saying something, but it sounded like gibberish.
Her brain was on fire and her heart beat impossibly fast. A picture formed in her mind. She stood before the pit and the sailors rose, their arms outstretched toward her. She tried to flee, but her legs froze to the spot.
The overwhelming grave stench washed over her as the zombies gathered around her, then dropped to their knees and bent their heads as if they were knights kneeling before their queen.
She raised a hand to rub her eyes, hoping she'd wake up. She stopped, her hand in front of her face. The flesh had rotted, and hung in shreds. Glistening white bones shone through.
The voice came back. "You are one of us now."
Jen screamed.
Visions came and went, from a fiery pit of molten rock she tried to escape from to iceberg-laden water she was drowning in. No more pain. Please!
"Jen."
She kept her eyes closed. Was this just another dream?
Closer, the voice said, "Jen, can you hear me?"
I know that voice.
She murmured, "Wayne?"
Wayne laughed.
"Yeah, it's me. Can you open your eyes?"
Her eyelids were stuck together, but she strained and they popped open. A face hovered above her, blurry. "Wayne."
The blurry face shot away and someone nearby took in a lungful of air.
"Wayne?" she asked.
Wayne's voice came, but this time it was shaky. "How do you feel?"
Jen blinked several times and his face came into focus. She smiled. "For once, I'm glad you asked. It was pretty shitty for a while, but I think I'm over the fever."
She rose on her elbows and Wayne scooted back. "What the hell's wrong with you?" she asked.
He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing on his neck. "You were bitten."
Jen raised the arm that had been bitten. It was wrapped in bandages and blood had seeped through and dried. She flexed it. "Doesn't hurt."
Zeke had given her the serum. "So the serum worked?" She looked around the room. A small office with two desks and two chairs, it smelled of grease and oil. She lay on a couch with a cheap plastic cover.
"Where am I?"
"My shop," Wayne said. "In Coventry, Rhode Island. D-Day found a couple of motorcycles. One had a sidecar, and we put you in it and rode here as fast as we could."
"Where are the others? Where's Zeke? I need to thank him."
Wayne glanced at a closed door. "They're in the shop."
Jen pushed herself into a sitting position and shook her head. "Still some cobwebs. How long was I out?"
"A day."
Damn.
She pointed to a door on the opposite wall. "Bathroom?"
Wayne nodded.
Jen pushed herself to her feet and used a desk as support as she stumbled toward the bathroom. Wayne backed up to the shop door. His hand gripped the knob as if he were about to make a run for it.
Jen ignored him and made it to the bathroom. Hanging onto the doorframe with one hand, she fumbled along the wall for a switch. She found it after a moment and flipped it on.
Sharp fluorescent light blinded her. She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands, then opened them.
The small bathroom had a standard toilet with a seat that had seen better times. The floor tiles were worn, but clean, and a sink with a rust stain down the back of the basin stood directly in front of her. A mirror hung on the wall above it.
She glanced in the mirror, then did a double-take. A worn version of herself, with torn dirty clothes and disheveled black hair, stared back at her.
A chill hit her body and she trembled. One brown eye peered back at her. Only one, because the other was deep yellow.
18
Jen froze. "Holy shit."
She spun. "You need to kill me now. Before I finish turning and hurt you."
Wayne put his hands out, shaking his head. "No. You were bitten yesterday."
A bang came at the door. "I hear you talking," Zeke said. "Is she awake?"
Jen looked at herself in the mirror again. "I can't let anyone see me like this. Especially not Zeke."
The door burst open and D-Day strode in, shoving it to the side. "How is she?"
Jen shut her eyes.
Someone hugged her from behind. "You don't know how glad I am to see you alive," Zeke said.
Keeping her eyes shut, Jen turned and hugged him back. "Not sure I am."
Zeke let go of her.
"What do you mean?" D-Day rumbled.
Jen took a deep breath and exhaled. She opened her eyes.
D-Day's jaw went slack and he yanked his machete from its sheath.
Zeke's mouth formed a perfect "O," then broke into a smile that threatened to cut his face in half. "Gnarly."
He took a step toward her and she put her hands out. "No. We don't know if I'm dangerous."
D-Day remained silent, his eyes boring into hers as if trying to read her mind.
"I think she's OK," Wayne said. "She would've turned completely a long time ago."
"Come on," Zeke said. "You're the same Jen we all know and love. You just have the coolest eyes I've ever seen."
Jen lumbered to the couch and dropped onto it. "But we don't know if it's over. Remember that experiment with the old lady that gave O'Connor the heart attack? The serum delayed her turning."
"But not by a day," Zeke said.
"And now we don't have the serum," Jen said. "Our mission was to deliver it so it could be used to make a cure for everyone, not just me."
Zeke stood back, arms crossed. "I had to save you. I had no choice."
D-Day still had the machete in his hand.
Jen's eyes met his. "You can do it. We haven't known each other long."
"Oh, I'll do it," D-Day said. "But only if the time comes. I'm not a murderer."
Jen squeezed her eyes shut and leaned back on the couch. "My mission's changed. Since we no longer have the serum, we need to go back to Atlanta."
"That's the first sensible thing you've said since you woke up," D-Day said. "I'll take you in the sidecar, but we need to find a place to fill up."
"I've got an underground tank here," Wayne said. "You're welcome to it."
"Where Jen goes, I go," Zeke said.
Wayne exhaled loudly. "I knew you'd say that. Looks like Zeke and I are coming along."
D-Day rubbed his hands together. "Now that's settled, where can we get some grub?"
Wayne pointed toward the front glass door. "Burger place on the opposite corner of the intersection and a greasy spoon across the street to the left."
"Burgers it is." D-Day opened the door.
"Wait," Jen said. "I can't go out there like this."
Wayne frowned, then yanked a desk drawer open and rustled through it, finally producing a black pair of sunglasses.
He handed them to Jen. "This should do."
She put them on and looked in the mirror. "Close up, I can tell my eyes are different colors, but not that one is yellow."
"They'll do for now," D-Day said. "We'll pick up some mirror sunglasses after we eat."
Jen nodded. "I'm hungry, too."
She followed D-Day out the door and to the burger place. Zeke kept pace by her side. Wayne stopped and locked the shop's door before joining them.
Feeling better. Bet some food will take me to a hundred percent.
The restaurant had a few people in it. D-Day led them to a table in the back. Seventies' classic rock music played over speakers that looked like they'd seen better days.
A large sign hung on the wall that said, "Clam Cakes and Chowda Our Specialty."
A grimy-looking guy with a unibrow took their order. Jen chose a double cheeseburger.
"How would you like that cooked?" Grimy Guy asked.
"Raw."
D-Day and Wayne did a double take, and Zeke's mouth hung open. Grimy Guy looked at her, the furry caterpillar over his brow crinkled. "You mean rare?"
She glanced at the others, then grinned. "Let's make it well done."
Wayne visibly relaxed, while Zeke's mouth shut. D-Day went back to his complacent-looking expression. "Looks like you haven't changed that much," he grumbled.
Jen wolfed down her food, then sat back and finished her soda. A light belch escaped. "Feel like my old self again."
"You look like a celebrity with sunglasses on indoors," Zeke said.
Wayne laughed.
"I make these look cool," Jen replied.
Jen's fingertips tingled.
What was that?
Jen glanced toward the back wall. Nothing but booths and wall.
The tingling traveled up her arm and snaked down her spine. She turned her chair toward the wall. Something's wrong.
D-Day finished off a large shake, then put a hand up.
The music on the radio had stopped and it emitted a series of beeps. "This is the emergency broadcast system. Stand by for an important message from the Rhode Island Department of Emergency Management."
Someone at another table gave a loud shhh and the burger joint went quiet.
"There has been a zombie ou
tbreak in Kingston," the radio said. "While that outbreak was resolved, Rhode Island state troopers report that breakouts have occurred in North Kingstown, Exeter, East Greenwich, Warwick, and West Warwick. Citizens in those areas are cautioned to arm themselves and stay in their homes or places of employment. Call 911 to report any zombie activity."
A couple of cop cars zoomed by with their sirens screaming. They were followed by SUVs full of men in camouflage uniforms, heading in the same direction Jen had just been sensing something.
"What's out in that direction?" D-Day asked.
"West Warwick," Wayne said. "Just down the road."
Chairs scraped the floor as the other table of diners hurriedly left.
"I want to go see," Jen said. I have to go see.
"Are you nuts?" Wayne said. "Why do you want to do that?"
Jen looked at D-Day. A small grin appeared on his face. Damn, he always looks like he knows more of what's going on than everyone else.
Zeke stood. "Because that's what we do, Wayne. We're Homeland Security agents, and we kill zombies."
"And there's no serum left to guard," Jen said. "Why not help out the locals before we return to Atlanta?"
"Damn straight." D-Day stood and headed for the door.
Jen shoved the last French fry into her mouth and rushed after him.
The two bikes roared down Tiogue Ave until it became Main Street. Several cars passed them going the other way. Guess it's worth your rations to get the hell out of Dodge when the undead show up.
The sidecar hit a pothole and Jen was thrown against the back. "Dammit. Rhode Island roads suck."
Lined with older-looking two-story houses, the area looked like it probably hadn't changed in fifty years.
Several pickups rode up on their ass and laid on their horns. D-Day and Wayne moved to the side to let them pass. Filled with men and women in a mishmash of camouflage and denim clothing, each wielding a variety of weapons, they sped by and disappeared up ahead.
The cracked sidewalks filled with pedestrians heading away from the action. Some carried possessions, but most had nothing more than the clothes on their back. A number of bicycles sped by on the road.
Two minutes later, they came to a number of vehicles blocking the road between a pharmacy and a two-story brick building. Police vehicles with their lights still going were parked next to civilian vehicles, including the trucks that had whizzed past them.
The Zombie Uprising Series: Books One Through Five Page 53