The Zombie Chronicles - Book 2 (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) Page 8

  “Yeah, we all stink. We haven’t had a shower in days.” Lucas popped his head up. “A zombie apocalypse, and the girl’s still worried about clear skin and smelling like daisies. Can you believe that? I tried to tell her I love her just the way she is, bad skin and all, but she’s all embarrassed about it.”

  “Hey! I heard that!” Jackie said.

  “My sister and her friend have horrible acne.” I laughed. “Unfortunately, there’s no pimple cream out here in Zombie Land.”

  “Very funny!” Jackie said.

  “Val, don’t be like this,” Lucas pleaded. “The officer just wants to say hello. Besides, you look absolutely stunning, even if you haven’t washed your hair in months.” In an Oscar-worthy performance, he leaned down and acted as if she was whispering to him, then answered, “No, your breath isn’t that bad.” He looked at the soldier and said under his breath, “Pewww!”

  I chuckled. “Aren’t those lovebirds just adorable?”

  “Tell the girls to come out,” the soldier demanded, meeting my gaze.

  “No! We look and smell horrible,” Jackie said, slowly slipping the covers down. “Please try to understand,” she pleaded before throwing the cover back over her head.

  “How many girls are under there?” the soldier asked.

  Claire slammed the truck door shut and walked over. “Hey, leave my friends alone. Can’t you tell they’re embarrassed? Look at us! We’re filthy.”

  The soldiers immediately pointed their weapons at Claire, but she didn’t care and just kept up with her charade, trying to take their attention off Jackie and Val.

  She placed her hands on her hips. “We need showers and clean clothes…and we’re starving. Think you can recommend a great place for a lady to eat and get a drink?”

  “Are your friends as hot as you?” a soldier in the group said, eyeing her up and down, looking like he was ready to gobble her up head to toe. If I didn’t know better, I might have mistaken him for a zombie by that hungry way he was looking at her.

  “No way,” she said, flashing a brilliant white grin. “If you want hot, you talk to me.”

  The soldiers all guffawed, laughed, and focused all their attention on Claire. Seduction! The oldest trick in the book. The men relaxed a bit and dropped their guard, putting down the guns they’d been aiming at us.

  A man with a buzz haircut cupped Claire’s face. “What’s your name, sweetie?”

  She swallowed nervously. “Claire O’ Hara.”

  I wanted the bulldog-faced brute to get away from her. Something protective swelled up in me, and I wanted to get up and pound the idiot. I didn’t like where it was going, not one tiny bit. I thought maybe flirtation wasn’t the route to go. I clenched my fists, fearing for her safety. If they attack her… I glanced at Nick, horrified. He nodded slowly, signaling that it was best if I play along. Even though I didn’t want to, I knew my big brother knew best, so I held my temper in check.

  “Mmm, that’s sexy,” the soldier said. “Maybe we can hook up later tonight.”

  She winked. “You never know, soldier boy.”

  “That’s enough, Sergeant,” said the man who appeared to be in charge. He was built like a football player, with massive, muscular arms. He motioned Claire back into the driver’s seat, then looked at me. “What are your names? Start with the girls who are hiding.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and noticed that Claire was now safe in the driver’s seat. Thank goodness! I let out a sigh of relief.

  “I need names,” the man demanded, climbing into the truck bed.

  “Val Peterson and Jackie Shadows,” Nick said.

  He jotted them down, then glanced at me. “And you?”

  “Dean Walters, and this is my friend, Lucas Meadows, and my brother, Nick Walters.”

  He jotted down some more notes, then peered down at the girls under the dusty blankets. “Ladies, you’re not gonna look like cover girls during the zombie apocalypse. You’d do well to come to terms with it.”

  “Why not?” Jackie asked, peeking her head out to meet his penetrating gaze.

  “Because life, as we used to know it, has changed,” the man said. “If you don’t get with the times, you’ll never survive out here. You might be good at handling your mascara brush, but you’d be better off handling a gun out here,” he scolded, and the other soldiers broke out into a fit of laughter.

  I knew Jackie had to be boiling from the snide remark, but she bit her tongue and didn’t fire any sarcasm back at him. I was thankful for that.

  “Do you have friends or family nearby whom you can stay with?” the man asked.

  “No,” Nick said. “We have nowhere else to go. We’re counting on your compassion and hospitality, sir.”

  “Does anybody else know you’re here?” asked another soldier, who’d decided to climb in the truck bed with us. “This isn’t a homeless shelter, and we can’t be opening the doors to all your friends and family. We’re a very private town.”

  “Nobody knows about your precious town,” Nick snapped. “We didn’t say a word to anyone.”

  The soldier smiled. “Good.” He peered up at the officer who appeared to be in charge. “I’d say they’re perfect guests for Kingsville. What do you wanna do, sir?”

  The man in charge eyed all of us. “Cause any trouble, and there’ll be consequences. I promise you that.”

  “The last thing we want is trouble,” I said, and I meant it, even though I was sure there was plenty of trouble on the horizon for us—at least until we got those vials back.

  “You can stay, pending inspection by the clinic,” he said. “Nobody goes any farther without an examination. Drive on over there,” he said, pointing to a small green building. “If you pass, you’ll be given an orange slip with a stamp on it. Report back over here with that, and we’ll let you in.”

  I nodded. “Thanks.”

  All the troops went back to their respective posts, and we parked behind the building so there’d be no chance they’d see Val if she started her antics.

  Jackie hopped out. “How’s she gonna pass a physical?”

  “Only one of us has to pass,” Claire said. “Whoever does can follow the tracker to Tahoe and take back the vials. I personally hope it’s me, because I’m gonna kick him in the nuts so hard he’ll be sneezing them out his nose.”

  “Not if I beat you to it,” Jackie said.

  We couldn’t leave Val in the back of the pickup; she was too visible. Lucas suggested we put her in the cab. Nick and Lucas lifted her out of the truck and handed her to Jackie, Claire, and me. In that very instant, the bindings on her feet broke. She head-butted me, and while stars danced in my vision, she stumbled away. Nick grabbed her around the waist, and she thrashed her legs, sending both of them stumbling and tumbling to the ground. I ran over with some rope and began tying her legs, while Lucas, Jackie, and Claire threw their weight on top of her to hold her down.

  I scrambled up and looked around to see if any soldiers were nearby. Thankfully, there was nobody in sight. I also looked for windows or security cameras, but I didn’t see any—another blessing. I scooted Val into the front seat of the truck and laid the same green blanket over her. She thrashed around as Nick put the sack back over her head, but once he had it on, she immediately calmed down. I let out a breath as I locked the doors, praying nobody would venture over there to investigate. Lucas had been making jokes about her bad skin, but the troops had no idea just how serious it was.

  We walked to the front of the building and entered the stuffy, empty room. It was the typical, run-of-the-mill doctor’s office waiting room, decorated with colorful portraits, giant plants, a fish tank, and a stack of outdated magazines. A couple of women were arguing at the receptionist’s desk.

  “What do you mean I didn’t pass the exam? I’m in perfect health!” said a stick-thin woman with a long, blonde ponytail. She was in tight, black jeans.

  “You know why,” said a lady dressed in white, holding a clipboard.
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  “The scratch? I told you I got that from my elderly mother, who has Alzheimer’s. She fights me when I have to wash or change her. As a nurse, you should understand that.”

  “It’s our job to protect Kingsville residents at all costs. Surely you understand, ma’am, and we can’t just—”

  “No, I most certainly do not understand! This is just an excuse to keep me out—to keep me from finding my sister!”

  “I’m afraid you’re going to have to leave, or I’ll phone security.”

  The woman stepped closer. “You said my sister didn’t check into this town, but I know for a fact that she came here to visit her best friend. Why don’t you just let me talk to Lucy Mandell? Have her come outside the gates for a few minutes if you won’t let me in. Please! I need to see her!”

  “You can’t prove that your sister ever made it here in the first place,” the nurse said. “With all these zombies running around, how could she? People are killed every single day by those horrid things.”

  The woman rummaged through her oversized black and gold purse and pulled out some flyers. Meeting my gaze, she handed them to me. “Have you seen my sister?”

  I peered down at the smiling face of the missing woman. “I’m sorry. I’ve never seen her before. But we’re new to this area, just passing through.”

  We all looked at the flyers, just in case, and offered our support and encouragement.

  “I understand,” the woman said. When I tried to hand the papers back to her, she held a hand up. “No,” she said. “Please keep them and pass them out around Kingsville if these nuts will let you in. Somebody has to know what happened.”

  The door burst open, and a group of military uniform-clad men rushed in. The nurse pointed to the woman, and the men briskly escorted her out before she could get another word out. The door shut with a click.

  The nurse threw on a pair of gloves from her pocket and grabbed the flyers from me. “The woman had a scratch, and she touched these. They’re contaminated, and I have to confiscate them, if you don’t mind.”

  “A scratch? But that’s not how the virus works,” Nick said.

  If the nurse really thought they were contaminated, I had no doubt she’d be ushering me into some kind of decontamination area, because I had touched the flyers. I didn’t believe her for a minute.

  The pseudo nurse scowled, lines creasing her forehead. “If you don’t agree with our protocol, you’re more than welcome to leave.”

  Nick shook his head. “No, I—”

  Lucas cut him off before he could say anything to make matters worse. “Protecting Kingsville residents is very admirable. She had a scratch, and you shouldn’t take any unnecessary risks.”

  “Absolutely. Let’s get started, shall we?” asked the nurse, handing Lucas a form with “Kingsville” on top in big, bold letters. “Please state why you’re here and answer all the questions. While each one of you fills that out, my other colleague and I will start the exams. Who wants to go first?”

  I raised my hand. “I guess I will.”

  Chapter 15

  The nurse handed me a blue gown and led me to a small exam room, where she asked me dozens of questions. After writing everything down, she gave me time to change. She listened to my heart and lungs, like the typical physical in a doctor’s office, checking my entire body from head to toe.

  “There’s a scabbed-over wound on your wrist,” the nurse said. “What happened?”

  I touched the area, and it didn’t hurt one bit. “I fell into a hole, and a piece of concrete fell on me. It’s not a bite. I can promise you that.”

  “I know. Zombie bites don’t scab over. They fester into seeping wounds.”

  Val’s wound came to mind, because that was exactly what had happened to her. At least in that, the nurse was telling the truth. I decided it best to casually slip in Tahoe’s name. Like us, he would have had to go to the clinic for an exam before entering the city. “Have you been busy? I bet you get a lot of visitors wanting sanctuary in your awesome town,” I said, doing my best to suck up to her.

  “Nobody in three days,” she said.

  “My friend Tahoe’s supposed to meet us here today. He has a big, fluffy beard and brown hair. You can’t miss him. Plus, he was hurt, so I think he’d need antibiotics and fresh bandages.”

  “Hmm. Nobody with that description has checked into the clinic.”

  I bit my lip. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course. Who could forget a name like Tahoe?”

  Dead end. How did Tahoe get in without going through the clinic? I wondered. Maybe he has connections in the military, or did he elude security and hop the fence? My guess was that he slithered in like the snake he was, the scamming backstabber.

  The nurse picked up her clipboard and looked at me. “Just a few more questions and we’ll be done. Let’s see… Do you have any family or friends around here?”

  “No. Our helicopter crashed, and we’re just trying to get back home to Ohio.”

  “Does anybody know you’re here?”

  “How could they? It’s not like I could just phone home. What kind of question is that anyway?”

  “It’s a new protocol, that’s all. Nothing to be alarmed about.”

  Warning bells rang in my ears. The soldiers had asked us the very same question. Why? Why did I tell her nobody knows we’re here? What am I thinking? And, furthermore, why do they care? That right there should have been my cue to hightail it out of there, because something sure seemed off. She continued asking questions that made no sense, giving off more and more bad vibes. I wanted to run away, but knew I couldn’t.

  The nurse’s smile suddenly faded, and she held her head.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  She waved a dismissive hand at me. “Just another migraine.” She pulled a white bottle out of her pocket and swallowed a few white pills. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Maybe you should go lie down in a dark room. That’s what I do when I—”

  Her eyes bulged. “I said I’ll be fine!” she snapped.

  “Sorry.”

  “Just shut up, okay? Be happy you’re healthy, Dean, and that you don’t have a throbbing headache like me. You easily pass the Kingsville inspection. Here!” She threw an orange paper with a black eagle stamp on it. “Stay out of trouble. Kingsville has a very strict policy and doesn’t tolerate criminal activity of any sort.”

  “I swear we’re not troublemakers, ma’am.”

  “I hope so…for your own sake,” she added in an ominous tone. “You can go now.”

  “Thank you,” I said, leaving the room, following the hallway back to the waiting room.

  Nick motioned me over. “Hey, we’ve got a big problem,” he whispered in my ear.

  “What?” I asked.

  “They somehow know we had a sixth person in our party. The soldiers musta called over here with the list of names they jotted down. They wanna see Val next.”

  “Crap!” I said. “What’re we gonna do?”

  The door creaked open, and Jackie shot me a smile as an elderly nurse led her back to the waiting room where we were. That nurse looked a whole lot nicer than the crank I’d had.

  “So did we all pass or what?” Jackie asked.

  “They want Val,” Nick said under his breath.

  I smiled. “But I have a brilliant idea.”

  “What?” Lucas asked, walking over.

  “Jackie can be Val.” I motioned Jackie to the bathroom. “Change up your hair.”

  “I like that!” Nick handed her a handkerchief from his pocket. “Pull your hair back and make sure you see the other nurse, the one who didn’t examine you.”

  “That’ll be the crank I just had,” I said. “She says she has a migraine, but she’s a real headache herself.”

  She smiled. “Not a problem.”

  I bit my lip hard, wondering whether it was going to work or not.

  Jackie came out with a bandana over her head, but it was the older n
urse who came out and called Val’s name. We all exchanged shocked, panicked looks, certain that there was no way Jackie would be able to trick the nurse who’d just examined her.

  “Oh my gosh!” Claire said. “Nurse! Nurse! Come here!” She pointed to a colorful fish swimming around in the reef.

  The nurse rushed over. “What?”

  “You’ve got yellow-tailed damsels in here. Why?”

  “Somebody donated them yesterday,” she said. “I love their vivid blue bodies and vibrant yellow tails. Aren’t they spectacular?”

  “For about five more minutes,” Claire said. “Your volitan lionfish will eat them in a heartbeat. You’ve got to get the yellow-tailed damsels out of there…quick!”

  The nurse gasped. “Leo will eat them?”

  “You bet! He’s a carnivore.”

  “You must be right,” the nurse said, gazing into the tank. “We’re missing about two or three of them already.”

  “I’ve had fish all my life,” Claire said. “Those two breeds are incompatible.”

  The door creaked open, and the cranky nurse peeked her head out. “Where’s the last patient?”

  “You’ll have to examine her,” the old nurse said. “I have to save these fish! Leo’s snacking on them, eating his own kind like one of those darn zombies!”

  Jackie slipped over to the door and hurried in before the older nurse realized what was going on. Claire helped the nurse scoop out the blue fish and place them in a different tank with less threatening neighbors. The nurse seemed impressed when Claire told her she and Jackie had a twenty-five-gallon reef tank back in New York City. The two of them laughed and chatted, and I knew Claire had won her over with her sweet charm and all that fish talk. I was impressed with all the tips she gave the nurse for taking care of a large aquarium. She really knew her stuff about fish.

  I paced the floor for the next twenty minutes, and finally, Jackie came out holding her orange slip.

  “I’m going to Hollywood!” she whispered in my ear.

  I laughed at the American Idol reference and wrapped my arms around her in a hug.

  Nick grabbed my arm. “We gotta hurry up and get outta here, before they figure out our bait-and-switch.”