Determined To Live (27 page)

Jake stops next to
the stairs of the front porch and gets out. I haven't seen but one
zombie since we got halfway up the mountain, but with the thick
forest surrounding us, I don't feel it's safe to say that there's
positively none here.

Jake helps me out
of the truck and lifts me up in his arms to carry me up the stairs.
At the top, he insists on carrying me over the threshold, "since
we're newlyweds and all." Once inside the house, he finally sets
me down. I lean against the wall next to the door and look around as
he starts getting everything out of the truck.

The front door
opens straight into a large living area. A fireplace, sofa, matching
set of chairs, tables - all log-style décor - fill the room.
The kitchen to the left and the bathroom off the kitchen are all
country-cabin style as well. Stairs made from logs rise up in between
the living room and kitchen and when I see legs descending them, my
heart stops for a few beats until the face of a beautiful red-head
appears. A beautiful
live
red-head.

I can't imagine how
much more beautiful she would be if she were to smile instead of
looking as though she stepped in dog shit when she sees me. She
doesn't say a word to me as she stares me down as she walks right
past me and out to greet Jake. I turn and watch her as she goes up
and wraps her arms around Jake's neck and pulls him down for a kiss
that clearly says they've done that, and then some, many times
before.

After
the kiss, Jake pulls her arms off of him and steps back. "I'm
married now, Jordan."

Jordan's mouth
drops and her face takes on a color that closely matches her hair.
"You're
what
?
To
who
?"
I watch as her head swings toward me and then her eyes widen in
disbelief. "To
that
?
Have you lost your mind? Why would you bring someone else here? Why
would you do something so stupid?"

As pissed off as I
am by the insults, I still open my mouth to try to warn her not to
piss
him
off, but he's faster than I am. His hand striking her face leaves
both of us in shock. Her eyes flash with intense anger at him, and
then at me.

She looks back at
Jake, obviously expecting an apology. But when none comes, she huffs
out a burst of angry air, runs off the porch and around the house to
the back. Jake just starts picking up the boxes and items he had
placed on the porch and brings them inside, as if nothing happened.

"Who was that,
Jake?" I ask him, knowing the risk of being hit is high for me
too, but curiosity wins out.

"Jordan. My
ex-
fiancée
."

His what!

"Um, Jake?
When did
she
find out she was your ex-
fiancée
?"

"Just now, I
guess," he answers without any emotion to show he even cares how
that must have made her feel.

I can understand
her attitude toward me and don't blame her a bit. You took asshole to
a whole new level, Jake.

Suddenly very
tired, I hop over to the sofa and sink onto the thick cushion; but
before I can get comfortable, I hear a door further back in the house
open and close, followed by quick footsteps coming toward us.

Expecting Jordan,
I'm surprised to see a younger girl appear.
She
looks to be about sixteen and has long blond hair with just a touch
of red.
She
looks enough like Jordan that I'm positive they're related.
But where Jordan is
restrained and a bitch - although warranted, yes - this girl is
openly warm and sweet.

She comes right up
and sits beside me on the sofa, grabbing my hand with both of her
own. And then...she opens her mouth. My head spins from all the
questions, statements, explanations, compliments, and descriptions of
every single thing that could possibly be discussed by someone who
doesn't actually know you.

I don't say a word
- I don't have to - so when I realize my participation isn't
required, I settle back against the sofa and just listen to her. I
find out her name is Vicki, she
is
sixteen, she's Jordan's baby sister, she is madly in love with a
nineteen year old guy named Nick who doesn't even know she's alive.
She lives on this property in a smaller cabin back in the woods a
bit, which she shares with Nick, another older man named Paul, and
now she believes Jordan will be back there as well.

Actually, Jordan
can stay here and I will gladly stay in the cabin with the others.

After all that, I
lose the conversation as she goes from one subject to the next too
fast for me to keep up. I sit up when my mind realizes she mentioned
zombies in a building a few subjects back.

"Wait, Vicki.
Back up. What did you say about zombies?"

Before she can
respond, Jake grabs her arm - gently - and pulls her up and hugs her.
She squeals when he swings her around and the affection they both
have for each other is clear. She looks up at him with the adoration
a younger sister has for her hero big brother.

"I see you're
filling in my wife very thoroughly, Vick, but I think
I
will give her the tour and finish filling her in on the details. Why
don't you make us something to eat while we get settled in."

Vicki giggles and
nods as she rushes off to - I assume - do just that. Jake leans down
and gets right in my face.

"Don't be
questioning anyone but me about the things that go on around here.
Whatever you need to know,
I
will tell you. Understand?"

I nod, although I
highly doubt that's true.

"And one more
thing, don't even think about hurting Vicki. I mean that."

What the
hell
?
Why would I even do that?

I nod again and
Jake grins, obviously satisfied. Then he helps me off the sofa and up
the stairs. We pass four doors - two on each side of the hall -
before he opens the door at the end of the hallway which faces the
stairs. Inside is the master bedroom with an attached master bath.
The room also has a jacuzzi right in the bedroom. No need to ask who
this room is for.

Damn it.

"Why don't you
get a nice long bath and get changed? I'll help you in the tub then
bring your clothes up."

I just nod and hop
along beside him to the bathroom. He wraps my cast, I get in the tub,
he leaves. All I can think about is the "zombies in a building".
What does that mean?
I'm sure I'm not going to be
finding out via Jake. He didn't seem too open about discussing it
with me.

Turns out, I was
wrong
.

After I finish
bathing, dressing, and eating; Jake takes me out the back door and
leads me to the building a few yards away. He starts explaining as we
leave the house.

"I kept a few
things from you."
You
don't say?
I'd
call it straight-out lying, but maybe that's just me.
"I've been doing some experiments on a couple zombies. Trying to
figure this out."

Even though I
already knew it from the pictures, to hear him confirm he knew about
this long before the outbreak in Stephen, gives me a jolt of new fear
and confusion.

As we reach the
door to the building, he says, "I'll explain more when we get
inside." He opens the door and waits for me to go ahead of him.
I just stare at him.

"Go on. It's
ok."

"If there are
zombie's in there, it's not ok. I'll follow you if you don't mind."
Beat me all you want, but I
am not frikken going inside a place I don't know, especially where
zombies are being kept. Restrained or not.

He doesn't beat me,
but laughs, shakes his head, and goes inside.
Then
,
and only then, I follow him. We walk down a long corridor and finally
enter a room with a large glass window in it. I move closer to the
window at Jake's encouragement and look down into an open arena-type
setting.

Four zombies, two
women and two men, are shuffling about on the dirt and snow packed
ground. There's no roof to protect them from the cold mountain air
and snow, but they don't seem to mind. As I focus more on the
zombies, I let out a gasp of shock when I realize two of those
zombies are his parents, the ones in the photos and the newspaper
article.

I do my best to
hide my surprise, shock, and horror before I look at Jake or try to
speak. Once I think I have it under control, I turn to see Jake
looking down at the zombies and smiling like a proud parent.

I clear my throat.
"Jake, who are these people?"

"Well, those
two" - he points at his parents - "are good ole Mom and
Dad. The other woman is Nick's ex-girlfriend, Kris, and the man is my
former associate, Walter."

"Former
associate? What exactly do you mean by that? Are you really military,
Jake?"

He grins at me.
"Kind of. I was hired by the military. I'm actually a
psychiatrist."

A what! Really
wasn't expecting that. Scientist maybe, but not a psychiatrist. He's
more screwed up than any mental case ever diagnosed, me included.

"I started
becoming interested in reanimating corpses when...well it doesn't
matter when. So I left my practice and moved up here where no one
would bother me. Somehow the damn military heard about my research
and paid me a visit. I tried refusing their offer, but the fact is,
you can't refuse their offers because ultimately, they're not really
offers. You do it or die.

"Turns out,
one of the higher ups had a son who died and he was pretty tore up
about it."
He says that
as if he can't quite figure out why a parent would be so upset over
losing their child.
"I
was adamant that the process hadn't been perfected, that they don't
come back the same. So instead of just giving me time to continue the
experiments on my parents - to get it right - they forced me to
infect other dead - ones who were newly killed and scheduled to be
cremated. Those families are holding onto or spreading the ashes of
animals and other non-human things like paper and trash. Imagine the
surprise of family members who may have come face to face with their
loved ones who they believed were floating on the wind!" Jake
laughs. I feel sick, sick and angry.

"The military
also ordered me to experiment on the living. Giving the injections to
some, and to others, exposing them to the already infected. The
results weren't good."
No
shit?
"I experimented
on people in Nebraska, Springfield, Stephen, Dallas, and Washington.
Mostly on the elderly in the nursing homes. Oh, assisted living is
the correct term nowadays isn't it?" He barks out a few ha ha's.
"People can get offended over the stupidest little things. Bunch
of damn morons. Not all the subjects were elderly, some people I
injected on my own without the military's knowledge - people who
pissed me off or were rude to me, you know? I have to say, it didn't
bother me a damn bit to inject some of those people. Didn't bother me
at all."

My mind is reeling
from the horror of what he's telling me. I very badly want to be able
to humor his imagination and believe that this is only his
make-believe little world. But it's not. It's all true, and I know
it.

"The old
residents were supposed to be monitored, but who can keep track of
everyone? So the old patients would bite the nursing staff, some bit
their own family. They were only to be given to the ones whose minds
were barely there, if at all. The ones who were already restrained to
their beds for their own safety. But once they infected someone else,
someone who could move freely, without restrictions - it got out of
control."

"Who monitored
the people you injected for the hell of it?" Until his eyes
flash, I had forgotten that he likes to get physical with me.
But
who can blame me for not thinking straight?

He doesn't hit me,
instead his face changes to a big grin as he decides he's proud of
what's he's done.

"Who cares? I
started this for my own personal reasons. It was for me and just a
few people I picked out. But when the military stole the virus and
started injecting it into random people that I didn't even know
about, it got out of hand fast. So who cares if I made a few more
zombies? What was the point in being discreet? Being careful?
Especially when the military was making more than they could handle.
I knew where this was leading."

"But...but
what if
you
get bit? Did you think about that? And what about your parents? Why
did you tell me that awful story about them? Your dad never beat you
or Greg did he? And speaking of Greg, what is going on with him? What
did you mean he's already dead?"