My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road (10 page)

No. He was
lifted
off me.

Kaylynn had him up by his collar. His feet dangled above the ground. “Leave. Him.
Alone
!” she cried.

She pushed Thomas away, and his body tumbled to a stop at first base. He sat up quickly, his eyes wide before he and the others ran for town. Kaylynn’s voice had changed, her shoulders were tense, and I was suddenly terrified. I’d never seen anyone throw another person that far. I didn’t think it was possible. As I backed away, she looked at me with a hungry stare.

A dark red had replaced her dark blue eyes.

While I was staring at Kaylynn, I knew I’d seen those kind of eyes before. Vectors had blood-red eyes just like that. Had she turned? If so, I didn’t understand how. She wasn’t sick a minute ago. She had no fever. Mom would’ve found something when she checked her out, and Kaylynn had no bites or scratches when
I
checked her out. Yet here she was, red eyes and veins bulging.

I had to know if she was gone. “Kaylynn?!”

Like water suddenly tossed on a fire, her blue eyes returned. She leaned forward and fell to her side. I dashed for her bat, hoping I wouldn’t need it. I reached for her forehead. Her skin was like ice. I didn’t know what do to. What
could
I do? She had manhandled Big Thomas, a kid three times her size, like a pro with ten times the strength. Who knew what else she could do?

Chloe came back from chasing the boys.

It wasn’t long before she growled again.

Long shadows bled through the fence. The crash of chain-linked metal made me look up, straight into the morbid faces of five Vectors. One wore a brown UPS uniform. Another had long hair and no lips, just a gruesome perma-grin. And then a child with one arm ran into the fence. More of them came lumbering towards us out of the sunset. I counted another twenty of them—including a few Runners. They would find their way into the baseball diamond soon enough.

We had to leave, but Kaylynn wasn’t about to wake up. The Vectors were bound to catch us if I tried to carry her, so I dropped her bat and slung her arm over my neck. I stood up and took Kaylynn with me.

Now we needed a place to hide, and the answer was standing right in front of me.

The granary.

I moved as fast as I could while holding Kaylynn steady with each step. The gray-skinned monsters followed us. As I was helping her over the railroad tracks, my legs began to ache. So out of shape!

“Chloe . . .” Kaylynn moaned. “Decoy . . .”

The dog ran straight at the Vectors, diverting most of their attention from us, buying us the right amount of time to reach the granary’s single silo. The collective cries of the undead told me they were closing in fast.

“Around . . . corner . . .” Kaylynn instructed.

We shot around the southwest corner and found a double door. I yanked on the handle, raced us inside and waited for Chloe to enter before closing it. There was only a bolt to lock the door with. I twisted the bolt into place and backed away as two runners banged their fists against the metal. I set Kaylynn down, careful and quick. We needed a weapon, and I found a metal pipe a second later. If stopping these things meant having to smash their brains in, I was left with no other choice.

I wasn’t looking forward to the mess, and I was wearing my favorite hoodie, too. Laundry is a pain.

“My bat,” Kaylynn said. “Where is it?”

I sighed in relief. “Where can we hide?”

“Where’s my bat, Jay?” she said angrily.

“At the park,” I said, still breathing hard.

“Idiot!” she cried. “He wasn’t worth it.”

The hinges shook, and Kaylynn jumped back. I hoped this meant she would stop the name-calling and see the serious trouble that we were in. The Vectors had caught up to us. Each of them wailed desperately. And if I wasn’t careful, Kaylynn would become one, too.

“How did you pick up Thomas?” I asked.

She frowned. “What’re you talking about?”

“And your eyes, they went all red. How?”

She got up and silently crossed her arms.

“Are you bitten?” I asked. “Scratched?”

“I’m trying to figure that out,” she said.

“It’s not rocket science! Are you or not?”

“What’ll you do if I am? Bash my head?”

Glancing at the pipe in my hand, I knew I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Aside from Jewel and my parents, Kaylynn was the only person in the world that I couldn’t afford to lose. I lowered my hands as the door creaked. One of the hinges broke. It didn’t matter whose fault it was. We were sardines in an oversized can with two-dozen Vectors attempting to pry it open.

We could argue another day if we lived through this. “Now’s not the time,” I said. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “There’s no way out.”

My aching ears were of no help to my pounding heart. I searched the dark building for a better weapon or a safer place for us to roost. How Chloe was able to stay so calm throughout all of that was a mystery.

“There’s an office on a second floor?” I asked.

Kaylynn was really out of it. She stood up, nodded, and led me to a set of steel steps. But just when we reached them, the door crashed open. Laggard bodies stumbled over each other to get in. Kaylynn and Chloe ran up the stairs. As I followed them, a Vector grabbed me by the ankle. With my heart caught in my throat, I repeatedly smacked the Vector with my pipe, but with no effect. It had me, my foot was caught in its grasp.

An arrow shot through its left eye from behind its skull, splattering dark blood all over my face.

It was one of Cody’s arrows.

Crack! Bang! Boom!

The moaning stopped when the gunfire ceased.

Flashlight beams danced into the building and converged on Kaylynn and me. Four men entered, each pointing their guns at us. I saw Mason right away, followed by Black-Bandana and Cody. I didn’t know the other guy, but they wouldn’t have come unless a certain fat kid had told them his version of what had happened between him and Kaylynn at the baseball diamond.

“What’re you doing out here?” Mason asked. “It’s way past curfew!”

“It’s my fault.” I stood in front of Kaylynn. “I started the fight.”

“What fight?” Mason looked at me, checking my stained face. “Is that what happened to you?”

“Ask the fat kid.” I hadn’t given the state of my face much thought. My left eye was swollen. I’m sure my stomach was bruised. The scab on my lip had split.

“Did any of those things touch them?” Cody asked.

“I was about to ask,” said Black-Bandana, coldly.

I’d wondered where Cody had been. Now that he was next to Black-Bandana, I saw a resemblance. Was Black-Bandana his dad? The man had a decent rifle and a sheath at his side for a sword or a really big knife.

Like father, like son.

“Did they touch you or not?” Cody asked.

“They didn’t touch us,” I answered. “Big Thomas sure as hell did.”

Kaylynn touched my shoulder, and then she gave me the slightest headshake and a strong expression that said,
I don’t blame you, but don’t make a big deal out of this
.

Her eyes made me cave, so I gave it a rest. “Thanks for coming for us,” I said. “Those things would’ve—”

“We’ll sort this out later,” Mason said, nodding to the others. “We’ll have to take the usual precautions.”

Black-Bandana and the others stepped behind us.

Kaylynn raised her head. “What precautions?”

“On your knees,” Mason said. “Eyes on me.”

No way. Were they going to kill us? Just because we ran into some Vectors didn’t mean they had infected us. Then again, my lip was split. What if I was infected?

“This will be over quick,” Mason said. “Relax.”

Chloe raised her paw. The new guy had her by the collar. I wanted to tell them to let the dog go when something wet and smelly covered my nose and mouth.

From what I could see in the corner of my eye, they’d done the same to Kaylynn. I tried to fight them off, but my vision blurred. And before I knew it, I was in a cornfield. I ran with Jewel, away from a horde of Vectors. They had sunhats and overalls, laughing instead of moaning. I sat up with a start, wide-awake with a headache. I was in a white room. My arm was tender. A strip of surgical tape was on my elbow pit, with a cotton ball under it. Three worried faces looked at me: Mom, Dad, and Jewel—in the healthcare center.

Dad’s AR-15 gave me a dose of reality.

My thoughts went to Kaylynn. Where was she?

“You gave us a start,” Mom said. “Are you okay?”

“Someone put a nasty cloth over my mouth.”

“Chloroform,” Dad uttered. “I can’t believe they’d use that on you kids—”

“Does it work like in the movies?” Jewel asked.

Typical Jewel. “Yeah. You should try it sometime.”

“She better not.” A fourth voice entered the room, one I hadn’t heard in a while. Sam walked in, her mouth absent of chewing gum. “I have good news and bad news for you, kid.”

I sat up, clueless as to what she was talking about. “What news?”

“You’re not infected,” Sam answered, smiling that time. “Your mother pulled a blood sample while you were asleep. Dr. Sanders ran it through. Type-O positive. That’s a very good thing to know.”

“Just like your dad and me,” Mom said.

“I’m the negative one,” Jewel said smugly.

“Okay . . . What’s your bad news?” Dad asked.

That dampened the mood quick. He wasn’t happy.

“I haven’t decided,” Sam said. “Your kids attracted a horde. I’m trying my best to not send you away. I don’t dare do that; we need you, Mr. and Mrs. Barnes.”

“You’ll have to discuss this later.” A man in a white coat entered the room. He looked like he was in his fifties. He had brown hair like me, but with a touch of gray at the ears. He was wearing glasses with thin frames. “I’m glad to see you awake,” he said before turning to Sam. “Harold told me he recorded a new radio message. Sounds urgent. I’m headed there now.”

Sam nodded. “I’m coming. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes, you’re welcome to join us if you wish.”

Mom and Dad agreed—and they told us to stay put. Jewel was to make sure I didn’t move an inch. I had to know what happened to Kaylynn. I had to know where she was and what this
important message
was about. Why invite our parents and not us? They probably accepted Sam’s invite to repair the damage I’d caused.

“Hey,” Jewel said. “Do you want to sneak out of here and see what they’re listening to?”

There are times when I could hug my little sister. I hopped out of bed and snuck into the hallway with her.

With the exception of giant floor-to-ceiling windows on the south end of the building, the heath center was a perfect fortress. They had several generators running to keep the place going. The few who saw us didn’t care, even with my medical gown on. I should’ve slipped my underwear on. Those gowns are incredibly drafty.

I poked my head into every open door on the way, finding nothing but check-up rooms, offices, and janitorial supplies. Physical Therapy. X-Ray. Surgery. The list of rooms kept piling up. The off-white walls and tan floors with blue stripes did nothing to alleviate my anxiety. Who knew what these people would do if they found us snooping around? Two men stood guard at one of the entrances—both armed. The more we pressed on, the more the healthcare center looked like a paramilitary compound. That’s exactly what the people of David City had turned it into.