The Zombie Chronicles - Book 6 - Revelation (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 4

  She glanced over at him. “Maybe we aren’t destined to break up.”

  “I don’t believe in destiny,” he said. “I think we make our own fate, and I couldn’t leave you to that one. I care far too much about you, Claire.”

  Before Claire could answer, Lucas cut in. “Hey, in case you lovebirds haven’t noticed, we could break off from these people and go our separate way. Yeah, they helped us through a rough patch, but we don’t need them anymore. We might have better luck if we leave this wagon train.”

  “But they know the area,” I responded. “I say we stick with them for now.”

  “Dean’s right,” Nick said. “Now is not the time to get lost. One wrong turn, and we’ll be screwed.”

  “I don’t know, guys,” Val said. “Maybe Lucas is right—for once,” she teased. “We’ve run into so many idiots and selfish lunatics. If we focus on ourselves, maybe we’ll live to see another day.”

  Lucas huffed. “I can’t believe you’re even talking that way. You don’t even have it in you.”

  She arched a brow. “What?”

  “You might talk a big game, Val, but there isn’t a selfish bone in that hot little body of yours. You know you aren’t capable of focusing only on yourself,” he said. “So let me come up with the self-serving ideas, would ya? It’s sort of my forte.”

  She shot him a glare. “Let me rephrase it then. We shouldn’t hook up with anybody, but I can’t just stand by and watch somebody die if we can do something to prevent it.”

  “How very admirable,” Lucas said, “but it could get you killed.”

  “Last time I checked, I’m still breathing,” she snapped.

  “Yeah, you’re tough, but you’ve got a soft heart under all that GI Jane nonsense…and so do your brothers.”

  “What can I say?” she said. “It’s in our DNA.”

  “Maybe, but one of these days, your heart’s gonna get you killed,” he said.

  Val swallowed hard. “Lucas, you’re a coldhearted, low-down, selfish pig sometimes, and I’m sick and tired of your—”

  “Enough, you two!” Nick scolded. “I’ve already got a pounding headache, and you’re making it worse.”

  Nobody said another word for a long while, and we traveled down the road in complete silence, like little kids in trouble on a road trip.

  I gently touched Claire’s hand. “You were so brave to help those women, Claire. You shot zombie after zombie. You were just…fierce. Jackie would have been proud of you.”

  “I’m just angry, Dean, and I’m ready to kill every one of those things I see.”

  Clearly, something inside of Claire had snapped. I could see it. She was furious, her spirit darkened by Jackie’s death and everything she’d been through. She was changing. I could see it in her eyes when she bolted toward those zombies without flinching. That wasn’t Claire. I recognized the look because I’d seen it in Nick’s eyes when he’d lost Darla. As I looked at her, I realized that maybe my brother and she now had something more in common than just chemistry: Both of them had revenge lurking in their hearts.

  The truck jerked to a stop as Nick slammed on the brakes. The car in front of us suddenly stopped as a line of beeping cars raced toward us in the opposite lane. The rifle-toting woman in the hat popped up through her sunroof again and began screaming for the cars to stop so she could warn them that they were heading straight toward the zombies, going to the same place we were running from.

  Chapter 6

  “Dean!” Nick called.

  I raised a brow. “Yeah?”

  “Did you see how scared they were as they sped by us?” he asked.

  Lucas nodded. “They’re running from something.”

  Three cars stopped.

  “Don’t go that way!” the lady with the hat screamed, then ran over to explain to them what was going on. “You’ll be sorry if you do.”

  Nick put the truck in park and hopped out. I also tried to warn more cars speeding past us not to go that way because they were heading straight toward a herd and would have no chance, but most of them wouldn’t stop.

  Lucas rushed over and started questioning the driver.

  “Zombies are coming!” the driver said. “You gotta turn around!”

  “We can’t,” I said. “They’re coming from that direction too.”

  “An entire army of them,” Claire said, her eyes wide.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “Why would we lie?” Val shouted.

  The driver pondered our words for a moment. “What are the chances that two armies would come at us from separate directions?”

  “It’s a fluke,” somebody shouted. “The perfect storm.”

  A woman grabbed his arm. “It’s the end of the world, Ted!”

  “It’s over,” another man shouted.

  “No!” Nick retorted. “I’m still alive and breathing, and so are you. Now let’s get it together and fight.”

  “Whatever we’re doing, we don’t have much time,” Lucas said. “We need to head east before we get sandwiched in.”

  Claire shot me a terrified look. “He’s right,” she said.

  “We’re not going that way,” the sunroof woman suddenly said.

  I shook her hand. “It was nice meeting you, and thanks for everything, but I think it’s time we go our separate ways.”

  “You’d be a fool to head east. There are mountains and hills that way,” she said, “and they’re teeming with undead.”

  “What are you saying?” the man named Ted asked. “We’re blocked in every direction?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” the woman said.

  “Then we’ll just have to fight our way out,” Nick said.

  “No!” the woman said. “We need to hide.”

  “Hide?” Val asked. “Where?”

  “We have to make a run for it,” Claire said.

  “Whatever we decide, we’ve gotta let the people in the back of the U-Haul know,” Val said.

  “Right. They have the right to make their own decision,” Claire added.

  Lucas grabbed her arm. “Just make sure none of them take off with our guns. We’re gonna need all the firepower we can get. Nick gave enough of them away at the last battle.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out for sticky fingers,” she said. She bolted off to open the back of the U-Haul and explained to everyone what was going on.

  I wasn’t sure what to do, so I pulled Nick aside.

  He shot me a grim look.

  “Nick,” I said, “do you believe that driver?”

  “Yeah. Didn’t you see the look in their eyes? It was fear, Dean. They’re not lying, and they’d have no reason to.”

  “In that case, we’ve gotta move.”

  Val stepped up next to me. “We should go west.”

  Nick gripped her hand. “We can’t. George said there are too many zombies that way.”

  Nick, Lucas, and Val began debating, along with the others, and I rolled my eyes as heated arguments broke out between all of them. We didn’t have time for petty fighting. I grabbed Nick’s arm. “Let’s just go.”

  A car screeched to a stop, and I was shocked when somebody called my name. When I walked over to see who it was, I recognized a familiar face.

  “Steven!” I said.

  “Dean,” he said. “We gotta go, man. Herds are coming from both sides.”

  “Where are you going?” I frantically asked.

  “Back to Fairport. I live in an apartment building not too far from the lab.”

  “Those herds will close in on you in no time. Our best bet is to find a weak spot and sneak through.”

  “Dean, I don’t have time to argue with you, but if you wanna live, you need to come with us right now.”

  Nick grabbed my arm. “We’re leaving…and not with him.”

  “Nick,” Steven said, “there was an explosion before you got to the lab, about two weeks before you arrived. I know it sounds awful, but it helped us to lea
rn something truly amazing. We can’t explain it, but the zombies won’t cross into certain parts of the city. They’ll go under it and around it but not in it. It’s as if the explosion left behind some kind of electromagnetic pulse that’s surging through the city, fending them off.”

  “Like…zombie repellant?” Lucas asked, smirking.

  “But we saw zombies outside the lab a few times,” Nick said.

  Steven shook his head. “Only stragglers, most likely people who died there and became zombies.”

  I looked at Nick. “He’s right. There was never much zombie activity around the lab, except when Jackie called them. Besides that, I only saw a few. I noticed that when I went canoeing by myself on that lake. I didn’t see much of anything, and I thought it was really odd.”

  “We’re completely safe in Fairport. We even blew up the stairs to the building, and we’ve got armed guards on post twenty-four hours a day.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Val said. “How far?”

  “Not far at all,” Steven answered. “Just follow us.”

  Val nudged Nick. “What do you think?”

  “It’ll do for now,” he said. “Besides, it’s not like we have much choice.”

  Steven shot me a sad look. “I heard about Jackie. Rachel and I are so sorry.”

  I nodded, swallowing past the lump in my throat.

  Val looped her arm in mine. “Let’s get our butts outta here.”

  “Looks like our stowaways decided to find other passage,” Lucas said, pointing to the back of the U-Haul, which was now vacant. “They got in the truck with the two women heading west, and a couple hopped in the Mad Hatter’s car, the one with the sunroof. She’s heading east, and she says Steven’s crazy.”

  “She’s one to talk,” Nick said. “I believe the kid, and the less baggage, the better.”

  Then, just like that, everyone went their separate ways.

  * * *

  We followed Steven into Fairport, where we drove uphill to a small apartment complex. I knew zombies could walk uphill, but it would slow them down; the terrain was a definite advantage. We parked and all got out of the cab. Steven waved us over to the gate and we followed.

  A group of men holding rifles nodded at Steven.

  “Steven, you’ve been gone for two days,” one said. “I thought something happened to you.”

  “Nah,” he said. “I’m way too hard to kill.”

  They gave each other fist-bumps.

  “Listen,” Steven said in a more serious tone. “Herds are coming from the north and the south. Looks like we’re gonna be right smack dab in the middle of a zombie civil war.”

  “I know. We just received the same news,” he said, “but we’re safe here.”

  “When that explosion happened, everyone flipped out. Turned out to be our saving grace.”

  “Well, every catastrophe has a silver lining, right?” Steven joked.

  The man’s face suddenly grew stern. “I’m gonna have to ask that your friends now exit the truck and leave.”

  My head throbbed. This is the last thing we need, I thought, glaring at him in disbelief.

  “They’re with me,” Steven snapped.

  “Just because you’re dating the boss’s daughter, that doesn’t give you the authority to let people in and out of here. You know the rules, Steven, and you’re not immune to them any more than I am.”

  “I’m sure Max would think differently,” he said.

  “And why is that?”

  “Because Dean, here, helped me save Rachel’s life.”

  I lifted my hand and waved. “That’s me. Guilty as charged.”

  “Hmm. Let me radio this in,” the guard said and walked off with his walkie-talkie.

  I looked at Nick. “You were mad I went on that little sewer mission by myself, but now it looks like I just scored us a free pass inside.”

  “Sure does,” he said. “I was madder than a hornet, but now I’m eatin’ my words.”

  “It was a piece of cake,” I lied.

  “Even though Nick blew a gasket over it, I’m glad you helped that girl,” Val said.

  “See?” Lucas said. “A genuine Mother Teresa under all that mouth and muscle.”

  “Yeah,” Val said, “and you’re right. One day it’s gonna get me killed, just like Travis.”

  I swallowed hard, recalling painfully that her fiancé had been killed while trying to find a cure for the zombie virus. Val and I weren’t as cold as Nick and Lucas, and we could never leave someone who was desperate for help; it was a trait we’d inherited from our mother, who cared deeply about people and was always willing to go out on a limb for them, no matter what. I was sure Nick had a little of that compassionate spirit in him too, but he’d snapped after Darla’s death.

  “What’s with the U-Haul?” another man asked.

  Lucas joined in. “Well, we couldn’t find a limo, so we had to settle for this.”

  The man looked at Steven and laughed. “It suits you, but you know I’ve got to check the back.”

  “Don’t worry,” Lucas said. “We demolished all the zombies that were back there.”

  I shuddered as I thought back to that moment when the zombies had climbed out of the U-Haul to get at us, like snakes slithering out of a nest. We were on our way to go save Jackie at the jewelry store. Jackie’s face flashed in my head, and I swallowed hard and tried to hold it together.

  The security guy smiled. “I’m not worried about zombies. We can handle them. I just have to make sure you aren’t trying to sneak any survivors in.”

  “You’re gonna love their precious cargo,” Steven said.

  Lucas rolled his eyes at him. “Uh, sorry, buddy, but those weapons belong to us.”

  The guy went back and slid the door open. A second later, the group screamed like they’d hit the jackpot, and I was sure they’d take the guns from us. I shot Nick a glance, but he just looked away, pissed beyond belief.

  Steven sighed. “Listen, I’ll talk to Max and convince him to let you keep your stuff. Don’t worry, boys.”

  “We’d appreciate it,” Lucas said. “Those aren’t exactly easy to come by these days.”

  “Okay!” a man yelled. “You’re good to go, Steven. Max wants to have a few words with you. But your friends will have to wait out here.”

  “Come on. Just let them in. They saved Rachel.”

  He pondered, and then shook his head. “Okay, take them to Max. He’ll sort this issue out.”

  Steven pulled into a parking spot right next to a red Lamborghini, and we followed him.

  Val grabbed Nick’s arm excitedly. “Hey! That’s the car we took out for a test drive!”

  “Yep,” Steven said.

  Nick cocked his brow in confusion. “What? Test drive? When?”

  “Dean sneaked me out of jail one night for a little road trip,” Val said. “It was the most thrilling ride I’ve ever taken in my life. We took that baby out on the highway and clocked over 100 miles an hour!”

  Nick glanced at her. “Back up a sec’. Dean sneaked you out of jail?”

  “Don’t worry. I went back to the hole when we were done, just like a good zombie.”

  He sighed. “But you could’ve jeopardized everything.”

  “I think the better question is why I wasn’t invited,” Claire asked.

  “You were out like a light from those sleeping pills they gave you,” I said, climbing out of the car.

  “You snooze, you lose,” Lucas kidded.

  I stared at the four-story brick apartment building. A group of armed men flooded out the door and surrounded the perimeter. Others surrounded our vehicles in a military fashion that Nick and Lucas probably admired, and more men fanned out up and down the street like trained military troops.

  “Clear!” one shouted.

  “We’re safe,” another said.

  I felt more at ease knowing we hadn’t been deemed to be dangerous.

  Steven talked to some of the security personnel an
d warned them about the impending doom.

  A tall man in a tattered leather coat with brown, shoulder-length hair and a beard walked up to Steven. “We aren’t taking any more survivors. I don’t care how you do it, but you need to get rid of them fast.”

  Chapter 7

  I was mortified. We’d come all that way, and there was a chance we weren’t even going to be allowed in the apartment complex where Steven and Rachel lived.

  “Max!” Steven yelled. “You can’t expect me to just—”

  “If you don’t get rid of them,” Max said, cutting him off, “I will.”

  “But Dean helped me save Rachel, and—here is the guy who helped me save Rachel.”

  Max held his hand up to stop Steven from talking. “Wait…you helped him save my daughter?”

  “Yes, sir,” I said.

  Tears welled up in his eyes. “I never got the chance to properly thank you. I know how dangerous that was.”

  “The important thing is that we brought her home safe and sound.”

  “I apologize for all this. Of course you and your friends are welcome to stay here as long as you’d like.” He looked at Steven. “Put them in Apartment 410.”

  “But the Joneses live there,” he said.

  The man shook his head grimly. “Not anymore. John and Ruby left to meet up with relatives in West Virginia.”

  Steven dropped his head. “I didn’t know them that long, but they sure were nice people.”

  “You know how it is. People come and go,” Max said. “There’s a long waiting list for vacancies, but Dean deserves this. This is the best way I can think of to pay him back for risking his neck for my daughter, a girl he didn’t even know.”

  “Thank you for your hospitality,” Nick said.

  “We all appreciate it so much,” Val added.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  He smiled. “No, thank you. But there is a catch. The last tenants left their dog, Sparkles. You’ll need to take care of her as long as you keep the apartment.” He waved a woman over, and she handed a miniature pinscher to Nick.