My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road (22 page)

Jewel beamed. “You can listen to it if you want.”

Kaylynn tousled her chestnut hair. “I’d like that.”

Their exchange brought a smile to my face. Jewel finally had her own big sister, just like she’d always wanted. What if Kaylynn became an in-law? I shook the idea out of my head. “Does this station have a garage?”

“I didn’t see one last night,” Kaylynn answered.

Keys in hand, we searched the rest of the building. How cool would it be to drive the rest of the way to Kansas City in a highway patrol car? Or on a police motorcycle? An armored Humvee? Tank? Daydreaming wouldn’t help us find the garage, but it was sure fun.

Having what we needed, we left the building and checked the street. A Stalker strolled down the road a couple blocks away. Behind the sheriff station was a small impound, filled with vehicles. We stuck close to the trees, checking our backs as we went. A chain-linked fence and a padlocked gate kept us out. No problem. Kaylynn whacked the lock off with one swing. Once inside, we closed the gate shut. A gray-skinned monster limped its way to the fence, its fingers curling through the thin links. Ignoring him, I looked around the small impound. Not much to look at: junk, a few barrels, and a car with a garden hose sticking out of the tank.

I leaned on a crate and fell on my backside.

“Hey!” Jewel cried. “Are you okay, Jeremy?”

I nodded. “I didn’t think it would move.”

“What’s that?” Kaylynn pointed. Until I shoved the boxes away, we’d never know. My efforts discovered two motorbikes. Their tanks sloshed with gas. “Sweet!”

We pulled the bikes out and inspected them. Both had a full tank. The tires had plenty of air in them still. There was just one problem. We didn’t have the keys.

“So . . .” I said. “How do we start these things?”

“Hold this.” Kaylynn tossed her bat to me. She hopped on the first bike, flipped a switch near the right handle, leaned the bike to the left and slammed her foot on the pedal. The engine sputtered to life. “You twist to accelerate, and you break with these—like a bike.”

“I know. Will these take us to Kansas City?”

“No, but they’ll take us most of the way.”

Anything other than walking was good to me.

“What about Chloe?” Jewel asked.

She barked, as if grateful to be remembered.

Kaylynn whistled. “Come, Chloe!” The retriever jumped onto her lap. Kaylynn let the dog rest her paws on the handlebars. “I bet you two can’t keep up!”

“You’re on!” I said, ready to race, even though I had never ridden a motorbike in my life.

I copied what Kaylynn had showed us and started the other bike. Since my backpack was in the way, Jewel climbed in front of me. As I twisted the handle, the back tire flung small rocks. Our bike zipped to the gate.

Kaylynn’s did the same, smoother than ours. The jolt nearly made me fall off the seat, but I held on. I had to hold on. There was no time to learn how to ride the machine, since our noise had awakened most of the dead in town. After Kaylynn kicked the gate open, we sped out of the small impound and down the street before the Vectors could grab us. According to the dial, the bike could reach 40 miles an hour. Even at 20 MPH, gliding over the pavement gave me a rush. My face cut into the wind. Jewel cheered, begging me to go faster.

How could I say no?

We left city limits in no time at all. The next few miles played out like a videogame, racing down the road and avoiding random obstacles along the way. We dodged suitcases, cars, and the occasional Vector.

I flexed my hands every now and then so my fingers wouldn’t freeze up. We soon crossed over the Missouri River, and then we turned south. We pulled off the interstate for a rest near a cabled bridge that led to Kansas City. Since our bikes were almost out of gas, Kaylynn suggested that we should ditch the bikes and continue on foot. The city was likely crawling with Vectors, so I seconded the motion. Jewel thirded it.

“Do we know where to look?” Kaylynn asked.

I pulled my dad’s map out to check. “There,” I said, pointing at a circle that highlighted an area in the lower end of town. “I bet we’ll know it when we see it.”

“You shouldn’t bet,” Kaylynn said.

I let the remark slide. My bets weren’t terrible.

“I’m good to go,” Jewel said, chipper as ever.

We walked into the city, beginning the last leg of our mission. If Cody hadn’t left us in Marysville, we would’ve arrived already. For his sake, I hoped we wouldn’t find him. As for Kaylynn, she was okay. We were closer than before. We would have plenty of time to understand where we stood with each other after a dose of that cure, if one even existed. What Kaylynn had said to me the night before was beginning to make sense. All I could do was hope that a cure was ready.

For the next half hour, we walked down Main Street through the quiet, deserted city. The shade of skyscrapers kept the sun off our backs. The place was eerily silent with more empty cars and drifting garbage than I cared to notice. With our eyes and ears open, we soon entered the circle that my parents had drawn for us. There wasn’t anything in the area that looked remotely like a medical center or a research facility. Behind us was an abandoned museum that used to be a train station. In front of us, on a hill, was a memorial tower with a torch. To our right was an IRS office building. An IRS building was a secure place, right?

“You think that’s it?” I asked.

Kaylynn looked to where I was pointing. “Internal Revenue Service?”

“Death and taxes,” Jewel said, matter-of-factly.

I laughed. So did Kaylynn.

“Random, Jewel,” she said. “I love it.”

I think my sister was about to say
thanks
when Kaylynn’s attention turned to the building with the tall tower. She took a step forward and gazed at it, longingly. The sight had captivated her. If she was a fan of architecture, this was news to me. It wasn’t until Chloe whined when I thought something wasn’t right. I’d never seen Kaylynn so mesmerized over anything.

“Hey.” She didn’t answer. “What is it, Kaylynn?”

“That . . . tower,” she said. “This may sound crazy, but I . . . I want to go up there for some reason.” She took another step. “We have to go in that building.”

“Why?” Jewel asked. “You’ve seen it before?”

“No—I just belong in there.” Kaylynn palmed her forehead. A puzzled look washed over her face. “This is how I felt when those Vectors invaded David City!”

A bumblebee zipped by. Jewel tugged my arm.

I turned around just as the moaning and snarling of the undead entered my ears. Vectors were coming from the streets and around alleyway corners. We were in the heart of the city, and
now
they had decided to show up! Being super quiet since arriving had no effect, but then I realized something obvious—Kaylynn was infected. The same pathogen that connected a Vector’s mind to her mind allowed them to see what Kaylynn was seeing. And seeing us with her was like ringing a dinner bell.

“You think we can handle this, Kaylynn?” Jewel said, backing into me.

She looked at them and shook her head. “No.”

Jewel’s bangs whipped her ears. “Why not?”

She had no time to explain, and I didn’t have enough bullets to slow them down. We ran to the grassy hill in front of us, heading for the building with the tower. The base of it grew bigger as we neared the large mural. There was no door. We had no choice but to run around it and head south. After we passed the building’s east wing, my lungs ached for breath. Reflected sunlight flashed at me, from a car in the distance that was facing the entrance. A Ford Explorer.
Our
Ford Explorer.

Cody had parked the car there. I turned around to see where
there
was and read golden words above the building’s main entrance:
National World War I Museum

This had to be the place. I didn’t need to look at the map in my clenched hand to confirm my instincts. We didn’t have time. Hundreds of Vectors were coming from the south, from the east, the west and right behind us. If we didn’t book it for the Museum, we were dead.

“This way!” I said. “We gotta get inside!”

“Seriously?” Jewel cried. “This is crazy!”

Maybe it was crazy, but Cody was in there. Maybe our parents were inside, too. Either way, we were about to be surrounded by more Vectors than ever before.

We sprinted to the bronze doors. I wrapped my fingers around the nearest handle. The door wouldn’t budge. Jewel tried the middle door. It wouldn’t open either. The Vectors had nearly caught up to us—their jaws snapping, their arms lashing. They were on the hunt for our flesh. I grabbed the Glock from my leg holster.

A gross
splat
made us spin around. Some guy in a pair of jogging shorts had fallen from above. His head split on the concrete like a putrid melon. Then another
splat
came, and then a dozen more. Decaying bodies rained down in front of us like an undead waterfall, pouring from the terrace above the museum. There had to be dozens, if not hundreds more of them. Some rose to their feet and escaped the decomposed dog-pile.

These monsters would never give up, and neither would we. Kaylynn reached for the last door handle and pulled with all her might. The other doors wouldn’t open for us, so I expected hers to be the same. To my surprise, she pried the big door open with no problem.

She gestured at the entrance. “Get inside!”

She didn’t need to tell us twice.

Jewel and I ran for the door, and Chloe shot past our ankles. Even if we made it in, there was no handle to pull the door closed on the other side, and no means of locking or barricading it. I was about to pull the door back when several rotted hands grabbed the edges. And then the door slammed shut. With so many pushing on the door, they had sealed it shut for us. A severed finger fell and then twitched on the marble floor. I wanted to hurl, but I kept my lunch in my gut for the girls’ sake.

This was only a setback for the Vectors. They threw their relentless fists and foreheads at the doors. They couldn’t get in unless they pulled the handles. I breathed and looked at Jewel. She leaned against a wall.

“Too close!” she said. “What do we do now?”

“Did you see the Explorer?” I said. “Cody’s here.”

“Why not use your powers, Kaylynn?” Jewel asked.

She could’ve used them. Kaylynn and I knew this, but Jewel was oblivious of our deal. If we had relied on Kaylynn’s red eyes for every jam we ran into, the chance of her turning into a permanent Vector was too high.

“If I go into Vector Mode, I may turn for good,” she answered.
Vector Mode?
I liked the sound of that. “They didn’t show up because of me,” she added.

“What then?” I asked. “I’ve never seen so many.”

“I know. It’s like something’s calling to them.”

“Guys,” Jewel said. “The lights are working.”

Sure enough, the entryway had soft lighting on. I saw this as a good sign. We wandered into the lobby that branched to a gift shop on the left, and another wing on the right. A bridge of glass stretched out before us, spanning over a pit of fake orange flowers. Poppies? I didn’t look long enough to make sure. The last light of dusk was bleeding through the skylight above our heads, with a horde of determined Vectors trying to punch and gnaw their way through the thick glass.

Jewel took the radio from my belt and switched it on. “Mom? Dad?” Jewel said into it. “Do you copy?”

Static.

“Let me see,” I said, taking the radio from her. “Maybe there’s better reception inside.”

“This isn’t exactly my idea of a research facility . . .” Kaylynn uttered. With all the WWI propaganda posters covering the walls, she had made another valid point.

We crossed the bridge and stopped in front of a theater entrance. We were about to make our way into the exhibit entrance when a sharp
crack
made us stop.

The pounding fists and extra weight had taken its toll on the glass above. Chloe barked at the skylight as the entire ceiling caved in. Glass rained down with more Vectors than I could count.