My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road (26 page)

The retriever didn’t obey that time. “Where’s she going?” Jewel asked. “And where’s
he
going?”

I tasted blood on my lip. “No idea.”

Crack!

Even with my blurry vision, I saw an office chair strike the window. Vectors had never picked things up like that before, let alone throw them, except . . . they
didn’t
throw them. Cecil had his hand pressed against the cracked glass, his other arm raised high like he was holding something. A computer monitor was floating in the air in the back of the room. When Cecil waved his arm, the monitor flew across and struck the glass.

The other Vectors looked at what he was doing, and then us. They raised their arms, too. I just stared at them while more objects began to hover in the air.

Kaylynn could throw objects with her mind. I never imagined that Vectors could do the same.

Jewel aimed at the window. “What the—!”

“No way,” Kaylynn said, like her breath was taken away. “There’s no way. He has powers, just like me?”

The Vectors sent chairs, jars, books,
any
thing they could find at the window. Most things smacked into the backs of other Vector heads. Others struck the glass, widening the ever-growing cracks. The pane was about to give, along with every biohazard inside that room.

I tugged Kaylynn’s arm. “We’d better go.”

We were at the door when Kaylynn stopped and turned to the brown-haired Vector, his palm pressed into the glass. She then raised her hand and aligned her fingers with Cecil’s. I could think of a million ways that Kaylynn could’ve given us the creeps. Doing that with her hand still would’ve topped them all.

“We gotta go,” I insisted. “What’re you doing?”

“Can’t you hear him?” she said.

Make that a million and one ways. “Hear who?”

Jewel grabbed the sleeve of my hoodie. Both of us watched as Kaylynn bowed her head and closed her eyes. She flinched back, like she was in a battle with a nightmare. She then screamed and tried to pull away.

For reasons I couldn’t see, the drooling Vector had captured Kaylynn’s undying attention.

I holstered my Glock. “Help me, Jewel.”

We rushed over and wrenched Kaylynn from the window, which sent us flying to the hard floor—harder than I’d meant to. Kaylynn’s eyes were wide now, the startling blue made all the more startled by her scared-stiff stare. I managed to sit, ignoring my aching side.

“What was that about, Kaylynn?” I asked.

“Don’t know, but I know what happened.” Up until then, nothing had broken her tough-girl persona. After helping each other back on our feet, I took up the Glock as another long crack branched away from the others. “I saw their memories. I heard their voices. They told me what happened.” Kaylynn swallowed. “Sanders took their blood and infected them for tests!”

“Gross!” Jewel retched. “Why’s he doing that?”

“And how did
they
tell you?” I asked.

“They didn’t—I just saw it.” Kaylynn raised her bat to a near-swinging position. “He’s using their blood for a vaccine. He used their bodies to see if it worked.”

“That means he knew about this place,” I said. “He works here!” Another chair struck the window. The glass began to bulge. There was no time to explore Kaylynn’s discovery, but she validated my misgivings for Sanders and his creepy smile. Who knew what he would have done if Cody hadn’t released us from that improvised prison. I couldn’t understand why Sanders was lying to us, but I had a feeling we were about to find out, soon enough. “Let’s get out of here.”

We made it to the door, but one of us was missing.

Jewel aimed at the glass. “Hurry!” I said.

“I can’t!” she cried. “I’m going to—!”

“Stop her!” Kaylynn threw herself at my sister.

After we wrestled the gun away from Jewel, the unmistakable look of terror leapt from her green eyes. She looked around, puzzled, like a sleepwalker after waking up. “You okay?” I asked. “What happened?”

“I . . . I was going to shoot the window—”

“It wasn’t Jewel.” Kaylynn pointed at the Vectors. “Don’t you see?” Given that our rational minds were compromised, we shook our heads. “The infection is using them. It’s taken control of their bodies!”

Her idea terrified me. “Like you can?”

When Kaylynn nodded, Jewel and I stood up and ran for the door. Kaylynn stayed close by our side as we entered the hallway, and not a moment too soon. Shattered glass rained into the control room, followed by the deafening roar of over a hundred undead. The heavy door closed. The lights dimmed. An alarm sounded with a woman’s voice on a speaker system:

Warning: bio-hazardous agent detected in Specimen Storage.

Just like the movies. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Containment protocol initiated . . . Evacuate immediately.

I stopped. This wasn’t a movie. This was real!

We hadn’t gone too far into the biology wing, so making our way back would be easy. I ran with the others as fast as I knew how. That’s when I tripped, as if something reached out and grabbed my ankle, only there was nothing there to see. As Jewel had been just a moment ago, I couldn’t move my body.

“Jay!” Kaylynn backtracked and tried to help me up. I was dead weight. Every last muscle in my body refused to work. “They’ve broken the door down!”

“Jeremy?” Jewel stopped beside me, terrified.

I had to keep her safe. “Go,” I said. “Go!”

“I’ll . . . I’ll get the door!” She ran off.

Good. Jewel had the strongest firepower among us, so she had the best leverage in case she ran into Cody or Sanders. Then again, I didn’t have any idea what Sanders was capable of, or what other resources he had. Whatever. There was no time to stew over what I didn’t know. The groaning of bent metal echoed into my ears from down the hall. I could see the Vectors breaking down a pane of reinforced glass, but a solid steel door? There’s no way that was possible, but they were coming. Their moaning grew louder as their shadowy arms stretched out. If they had breached the specimen door, we had more than a Vector infection to worry about.

“What do I do?” I said. “They won’t let me go!”

Kaylynn readied her bat. “Yes they will . . .”

The thing about being immobilized by a Vector with psychic powers was that I couldn’t turn around and see what Kaylynn did.
Ping
after
ping
, Kaylynn worked her
Bat-Kwon-Do
skills on the Vectors. A few seconds later, I flexed my hand. Moving again, I wasted no time standing up and calling Kaylynn back. She ran around the corner, her bat dented and bloody. We sprinted for the exit after she grabbed me by the hand.

“I should’ve taken the wooden one,” she said.

“We’ll find a better one when we get out.”

Around the next corner was the main door. Jewel was waiting for us on the other side.

“Hurry up!” she screamed. “It’s closing!”

Sure enough, two metal panels slid from the walls to the middle. We weren’t going to make it. Jewel’s terrified face was the last thing I saw from the other side. If she was crying or shouting, I couldn’t hear her. The closest thing to us was a security card reader. I didn’t have a card. Neither did Kaylynn. Shadows from the coming horde stretched ever closer, towards us.

Kaylynn pulled me around the next corner, into a hallway like the one we’d come from. One of the doors was slightly ajar. Kaylynn kicked it open and we rushed inside. We then pushed our backs to the door until it shut. The smell of cleaning supplies stung my nose. I nearly tripped on a wheeled mop bucket. Of all the rooms in in the place, we had to pick a janitor’s closet.

“Quiet!” Kaylynn shushed. “They don’t—”

Bam!

Too late. An infected fist rapped the door. It wasn’t alone. More joined in, each one knocking their fists on the door. This was it. I’d never see Jewel again. Kaylynn and I were about to die from the jaws of the people who used to work for the Dysfunctional Butt Clinic.

“Make sure Jewel gets out,” I said.

Kaylynn shook her head. “I’m not leaving you.”

She said that like she actually cared.

Even in the dim glow of a single light bulb, her blue eyes were brilliant. I blocked all other sights and sounds and soaked her in. Her face, purple highlight, and her frosty smile that warmed me—if I was going to die here, I wanted her face to be my last memory.

“This is crazy,” she said, “but I have an idea.”

“What?” I asked, willing to try anything.

Kaylynn bit down on her lip and grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me into a kiss.

I had no choice but to kiss Kaylynn back.

She leaned into me. She held me close. Nothing as soft as her lips had ever touched mine. One of the higher items on my bucket list—until just then—was to kiss a girl, except I promised to treasure the moment, not steal it from some naïve cheerleader and toss her aside like an empty beer can, like those high school jocks do. No. If I were to kiss a girl, she would have to be special. Kaylynn had special written all over her.

I nearly pinched myself, just to be sure. I’ve heard of seven minutes in heaven before, but with Vectors pounding on the door, it was seven minutes in hell. All I could think of was kissing her again in the near future without the Vectors trying to break the door down.

Blood slid down Kaylynn’s chin as she pulled away. And then I tasted it. Blood. Her blood. On my Lip. Open wound to open wound. I was about to gasp when she wiped her chin clean with her sleeve. “Trust me.”

She didn’t have to explain. Kissing my open wound was the quickest way to infect me. By doing so, the Vectors would lose interest in me—like how they ignored Kaylynn. I had to trust her. I had to believe she knew what she was doing. “I hope this works,” I said.

“Me too.” Reaching for her dragon pendant, a light pink rose to her cheeks. “Jewel won’t survive without you. If we make it out of here, we’ll find the vaccine.”

“The vaccine is for you,” I said. “And what if there’s only one dose?”

Kaylynn raised her bat. “I’ll worry about that when I get there.”

Fingers wedged their way around the edges of the metal door. It bulged inward, giving way to the feverish hammering of Vector fists. I took up my Glock, ready to pull the trigger.

“When
we
get there. You’re not doing this alone.”

She gave me a big, courageous smile. “Together?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, smiling back. “Together.”

My confidence restored, we waited for the undead to barge in. Kaylynn could’ve easily switched her Vector Mode on and I wouldn’t have thought any less of her, but she didn’t. She kept her promise, a promise I had asked her to make. I didn’t feel any different. I didn’t sweat, and I had no fever or any desire to eat someone’s face off. Was this really going to work? There was major direct blood-to-blood contact. Her kiss was going to infect me for sure. All I could do was stare and wait.

“They’re coming,” she said. “It’s not working.”

Boom! Schklikt—Boom!

The screaming undead joined the pumping and blare of a shotgun, and then there was silence. The Vectors didn’t push on the door anymore. Before I could think of what happened, there was a knock. Not realizing I was holding Kaylynn’s hand, we let go. I calmed my nerves and went for the handle. I pulled the door open. Jewel stood tall on the other side, triumphantly holding the 12 Gauge Maverick in her hands, and her feet planted on a heap of dead bodies.