Cry Zombie Cry (I Zombie Book 5) (11 page)

A tear fell from my eye and turned to steam before me.

All around, silence and loss drifted like cherry blossoms. It seemed I was the sole trace of life that remained; I was completely and utterly alone. The weight of the idea tugged me down until the flesh of my knees and palms burned from the heat of the char-black pavement. The scent of cooking flesh wafted into my nostrils, bringing a rush of saliva to my mouth. Hunger consumed me. Without fair warning I was overcome by the sickening desire to partake of my own meat. The thought brought a rush of bile to the roof of my mouth. My lips closed tight against one another to keep the sick at bay.

“
Bethany.” The whispered word encompassed me, caressed me. The voice was so familiar.

“
No,” I spoke through choking sobs. “You’re gone. You’re not here.”

“
I have been remade in man’s image. Desire has brought me back into the realm of the living. You need me, Bethany.” Again the voice begged for my attention.

I couldn’t resist. Some morbid curiosity insisted itself upon my will and pulled my chin up until my gaze landed on Jacob Plummer—standing directly in front of me. He was consumed with fire. His eyes were the only recognizable feature that remained. His big, beautiful, cocoa-brown eyes.

“
No, Jacob. I
needed
you. Now I just need our baby.”

The second the words fell from my lips, the body-rocking sobs followed. With my hands and knees still flesh-fused to the pavement, all I could do was buck and fold. Once I finally regained control of my diaphragm, I raised my eyes back to the flaming visage.

“
You have to help me find him, Jacob.”

The blackened head turned slightly to the side, the whites of his eyes gleaming through the blood-slick and chunky flesh of his face.

“
I cannot.”

“
Then why are you here?” I screamed, as a shock of pain shot up my right arm and down my spine.

“
I am here so that you will never forget—”

“
Never forget what?”

Jacob stepped closer to me and knelt, his flesh unaffected by the tremendous heat.

“
Death.”

I nearly laughed at the talking corpse before me.

“
And just how do you suppose I could ever forget about death? It’s all around, in living three-dimensional color. Every second of every day I deal with death. There’s nothing you could say or do to make me any more aware of death than I already am. You were the lucky one. You don’t have to live with the heartbreaking loss of the only heart to ever make you whole. You don’t have to continue to fight the near-certainty of a losing war. You don’t have to remember, Jacob.”

The burning man reached his hand out and cupped my chin. As our skin touched, a wave of comforting cool flooded my system.

“
You don’t understand, Bethany. Death has become a commodity to broker and trade. It’s the new king of Wall Street and anyone with a pound of that flesh will rule the land of their choosing. It’s a pendulum already set in motion that cannot be stopped. At least not without our child.”

At the mention of my baby, I ripped my right hand from the pavement and grabbed the collar of whoever (or whatever) stood before me.

“
What do you mean by that?”

The specter stared through me as if I no longer mattered. He said nothing.

“
Please, you have to help me.”

The figure carefully grasped my raised hand and kissed its palm gently.

“
Our son is much more than a blueprint for a cure. He is a link to the past and the future. He is the key to everything and nothing.”

As Jacob finished his last sentence, the flesh of his arm began to flake away and crumble to dust in the superheated wind.

“
Hope dies along with our child, Bethany. You must find him.”

All that remained was the blinding white skeleton until, one by one, the bones dropped to the floor and exploded like surreal firecrackers. When the skull finally fell to the pavement, the explosion rocked the landscape.

chapter 10 |
besting god

The room was cramped. With two doctors and Commander Faddig standing around the full-sized hospital bed, there was little room to move. The air was saturated with tension and the chemical smell of disinfectant and antiseptic.

“
So, are we going to stand here all day and ogle the invisible man, or are you going to unveil the latest freak show experiment that will most likely fail us, just as every other surgical disaster has?” Faddig huffed.

Dr. Otte stepped in close to the head of the bed and removed a pair of bandage scissors from a surgical tray.

“
You will regret underestimating us this time, commander.” The doctor carefully slid the scissors under the gauze covering the patient’s face and slowly closed the handle. The cutting edge of the blades sliced through the fabric as if it were tissue.

“
I’ve grown fond of underestimating, Dr. Otte. It’s far better than the usual disappointment surrounding this organization. We’ve failed at every intersection; what makes this one any different?”

The scissors made the last cut and the doctor dropped the stainless steel utensil onto the metal tray with a disruptive “clang.” His surgeon-steady fingers grasped the free ends of the wrapping and began to slowly peel them away. Layer by layer, the gauze came free until there was but a wispy thin film of fabric remaining. Finally, Dr. Otte turned to Faddig and smiled.

“
I am fairly certain, when the veil is lifted, you will behold the past, present, and future collided. What we have done is provide for you the very insurance you need that Miss Nitshimi will find her way back into the arms of the Zero Day Collective.”

Faddig released a machine-gun laugh. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard that?”

Both Drs. Otte and Karem turned and glared at their commander.

“
Just show me what the hell you’ve done so I can get back to doing something worthwhile.”

Otte’s fingers lifted the remaining bandages from the face of the patient, as if he were about to lift the veil from the mother of God. From under swollen lids, familiar brown eyes stared back at the three men.

The silence that overcame the room was heavy and electric. Command Faddig finally broke the spell.

“
What have you done?”

“
Bested God,” was Dr. Karem’s reply.

chapter 11 |
this can’t be happening

“
Bethany, wake up.”

The sound of Echo’s voice dragged me from my nightmare dreamscape. When I woke, my arms were flailing like I was swatting kamikaze bumblebees.

“
Whoa, whoa; it’s okay.”

“
Echo?”

“
Yeah, B, it’s me.”

“
What’s going on? Why are we stopped?”

“
Joshua had to fuel the truck up. We heard explosions. Morgan and Josh are trying to decide if we should go investigate.”

I didn’t give Echo fair warning; I shoved her aside and jumped to the parking lot pavement. As soon as I spotted the leaders of the Zombie Response Team, I sprinted.

“
We can’t.” The words started spilling from my mouth before I reached the couple. “We don’t have time for sightseeing or sidetracks. I don’t care if Elvis fucking Presley appears on a cloud gyrating to ‘Jailhouse Rock,’ we have to get to New Salt Lake City as soon as possible.”

Morgan turned to address me; the look on her face was driven and single-minded.

“
Bethany, I know we promised you but we cannot ignore what’s going on around us.”

I stepped in, probably a bit too close. “Yes we can and will. Take a look around you, it’s the same everywhere: death, decay, destruction. That’s the landscape of the entire world now. No matter where we go, there will be people hurting, starving, dying…transforming. If we stop for everyone, we’ll never make it. I don’t think you need to yet again hear the consequences of our not making it to Utah.”

Both Morgan and Josh stared at me, their faces revealing a level of defeat I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“
You know this is wrong, Bethany.” Morgan’s voice was sharp. “We should be helping everyone we can.”

I reached forward and took her hands in mine. “And we will. The best way for us to help the largest number of people, in the most efficient manner, is to reach our destination. I have to get my baby back, and the only way we can do that is to get seriously organized. We need a home base to work from and it needs to be close to the Zero Day Collective. Please”—I patted Morgan’s hand—“try to understand all that I do is for the greater good.”

“
The needs of the many.” Morgan closed her eyes and nodded.

I kissed her on the forehead. “Thank you, Morgan. I promise you, I will not let you down.”

“
B!” Rizzo came blitzing out of the Hummer. “Come here. You’ve gotta hear this.”

I dashed to the truck. The passenger door was already open, so I stuck my head in. The radio was on, the voice familiar.

“
…it seems legit, ladies and gentlemen of the Zombie Radio Nation. I don’t want to incite a riot or give you false hopes, but it looks as if someone has finally found the cure to the Mengele Virus. That someone happens to have their sights set on none other than Bethany Nitshimi. If you’re out there, Bethany, I need you to listen very closely. A Twitter account by the name @richard_gerand has posted that he has found the cure and a vaccine. He insists on speaking to you. If you’re listening, Bethany…call in. If this is real, then well… the world is counting on you.”

“
My phone.” My hands scrambled through my pockets and came up empty. “Shit, where’s my goddamn phone?”

Echo launched herself out of the Hummer and thrust the phone in question to me. Without so much as a “thank you,” I grabbed the device, opened up the Skype app, and tapped the Zombie Radio contact.

“
Looks like our fearless leader has arrived.”

“
Yeah, it’s me. Tell me what you know?”

From the radio, Simple Minds’ “Alive and Kicking” played. From the phone, the DJ spoke, his voice no longer infected with a lingering case of James T. Kirk. “I told you everything I know, my love. The tweet came into my account, so I figured I might as well give you a shout-out in case you were still alive and kicking. By the way, get the song?”

I did. How could I not?

“
Has this guy not attempted to contact you in any other way?”

“
B, I’ve already told you,” the DJ said, “the tweet was it. But don’t worry, love of my life, I will get this man on the line and hook the two of you up. If I do…you have to promise me a date for my trouble.”

The madness never ends. It was, however, the least I could do in the hope of salvaging what’s left of the planet.

“
You got it. One date, my choice of locations. No sex, no promise of anything handsy, and my entire posse will be close by in case you try something crazy.”

From the phone came an almost joyous, albeit misplaced, laughter. “Oh Bethany, you do hurt me so. Why in the world would I try something crazy? I only want to show my respect for what you’ve done to help pull civilization out of the ashen rubble. I feel like I owe you at least a night on the town but I promise I won’t try anything. I also won’t stop you should you decide you can’t keep your mitts off my silken flesh.”

Silence.

“
I kid. Don’t worry, I’m not a creep. I won’t be wearing your skin like a dress. No one will need to put the lotion on itself.”

Silence.

“
I’m sorry, Bethany. I can’t help myself. It’s just part of my shtick. Look, no date. You won’t owe me anything. I’ll hook the two of you up in the name of doing mankind the biggest favor I could possibly offer. Hopefully the two of you can stop the Zero Day Collective before they manage to succeed with this ‘Great Cleansing.’”

“
Thank you.”

“
Are you kidding me? You’re the one that should be on the business end of some serious thank-yous. The entire world owes you more than you know. One of these days, when we manage to make it through this nightmare, kids will be studying Bethany Nitshimi in school—you’re already a real-life hero.”