The Zombie Chronicles - Book 4 - Poisonous Serum (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) (16 page)

As I walked toward Jackie’s room, a
crash
echoed in the hallway. My heart pounded. I hoped to God that Jackie was okay and that another zombie hadn’t broken in. I rushed into the room like a crazy person and saw Jackie ripping the bed apart and throwing the sheets. A vase with fake flowers was shattered on the ground. A terrible temper was something else that Jackie and I shared in common, but I couldn’t blame her. If Nick had gone missing, I would have been punching holes through the wall.

“
Jackie…” I said.

She turned and met my gaze. “I’m trying to hold it together, Dean. I really am, but I’m just… gosh, where is she? I’m freaking out.”

I touched her back. “Don’t give up.”

“
I
can’t
lose Claire,” she said softly. “I just can’t.”

“
We’ll find her,” I said.

“
Why?” she yelled. “Why did this happen?”

Nick peeked in. “Dean, can I talk to you for a second?”

Before I could answer, Jackie bolted out of the room.

“
Jackie!” I shouted after her.

Nick caught her by the arm. “Don’t you dare.”

She spun around. “Give me some credit, Nick.”

They stared at each other before she finally spoke. “I’m not some like one of those ditzy girls in the horror movies, looking to go running off with my chest bouncing only to get myself killed. We need to hunt for my cousin, but I know it’d do no good for me to go out there and let those zombies pounce on me. You think I’m going to hold my gun up and rush them like I wanna go out in a blaze of glory as a last act of vengeance? Is that what you think I’m going to do?” she shouted. “I’m not an idiot!

“
Losing a loved one can cause a person to act irrationally,” Nick said.

“
Don’t worry. I’m only going to go investigate and ask questions. Maybe somebody in this flippin’ place saw where she went. After that, I’m gonna assemble a search team to canvass the grounds outside. Is that rational enough for you, Nick?”

“
Absolutely. Those were the same ideas I had.”

“
Good,” she said. “Then let’s get to work.”

I threw my arm around her. “C’mon. Let’s go start questioning the others.”

She shot Nick a glare, and we walked off.

I had no idea what had happened to Claire. She’d simply disappeared without a trace, just like Judy and the five others. Wherever she’d gone, though, I knew Jackie wouldn’t leave that place without her. We had to find her—for her sake as well as our own—so we could get the heck out of there.

Chapter 12

A huge group of volunteers headed out to do a sweep of the neighborhood on the quest for any odd happenings or sightings of the missing persons. We split into four teams. Lucas and Val went with the north team, and Jackie, Nick, and I went with the west team, and Kate went with the east team. The rain was finally letting up, so it was our best opportunity to leave yet, but we couldn’t take off without looking for Claire and the others. I’d refused to leave her behind before, and I wasn’t about to desert her now.

Some drizzle still came down on us, and I shivered as the cold drafts of air mussed my hair. We walked the streets in silence, not saying a word. We didn’t want to draw any attention to ourselves. Wind chimes blew eerily in the silence of the night, and the whole ordeal was giving me a whole new case of the creeps.

Jackie looked up at me, her eyes red and puffy. Claire was all the family she had left in the world. If we lost Claire, I knew it’d tear her apart even worse than the zombies could. I threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close as we walked.

“
What’s that?” Jackie asked. “Is that…a baby crying?”

I listened closely and could hear the faint weeping of a very small infant or child. “Yeah, I hear it too,” I said.

It was spooky…
eerie
.

Nick motioned for everyone to stop, and we all listened intently. It was definitely a baby, and the pitiful noise was coming from the two-story house on our right. Light flickered from a lantern in the window behind the billowing, sheer curtains. I wondered if it was a survivor, but when I saw that the door wide open, I feared the worst: that the parents had died and left the baby all alone and abandoned. I was sure if we got the baby, one of the women in our group would care for it.

“
Let’s check it out,” one of the men in our group said. “That kid is dead without our help.”

“
Come on. We have to save that baby!” Jackie said, pulling me toward the house.

Part of me dreaded walking inside because of what we might find…dead parents. Still, I knew I had to go in, even if only as a backup for the others. If something was amiss in there, they would need me. I walked on the porch and gave Jackie’s hand a squeeze. We all walked into the living room, and I had a glance around. The place reeked, so I gagged but continued on. It was dimly lit, and brown splotches of dried blood were smeared all over the couch, floor, and walls. How long were the parents of the baby dead for? How was the baby still alive?

The stench of death hung in the air. I assumed the zombies had dragged the bodies away, if there were even bodies left after their sickening feast. My stomach was in knots.
How long has that poor baby been left unattended? How did it even survive this long?

The crying was coming from the kitchen. With my gun drawn, I walked into the giant room but didn’t see anybody. I only heard the baby crying. My eyes focused on the bundle wrapped up on the table.

Jackie scooped up the baby and stared down at it. She frowned and ran her hands along its back, shutting off a black switch. “It’s just a stupid doll!”

Nick and I exchanged confused glances. It made absolutely no sense, and the whole thing was beyond freaky. Shivers shot up my spine again, for the umpteenth time that day. Babies crying in dark neighborhoods full of zombies is the stuff of nightmares, and I really just wanted to wake up.

“
What
is
going on?” one of the men said, as if he’d read my mind.

The door slammed all of the sudden, trapping us inside, and my gaze shot in that direction. Nick and I rushed to see who it was. I could hear the distinct sound of hammering, and when I tried to jerk the door open, it wouldn’t budge. Someone had locked us in. Shuffling ensued, and I heard thumping like a stampede of elephants.

“
Zombies!” somebody yelled.

“
They’re coming in through the basement!” somebody shouted.

When I glanced back in the kitchen, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Mindless eating machines were flooding in, viciously attacking anyone within an arm’s reach of them. It looked like a butcher shop, with blood, guts, and gore everywhere. Gunshots rang out, and men and women screamed in pure agony. I was mortified, my heart racing. I wanted to help, but I was no match for that many undead, and we were sorely outnumbered. I knew if I intervened, I’d only get myself killed.

From out of some dark corner, a zombie lurched at me. I kicked the front of its deteriorated knee with my steel-toed boot. When my boot toe snapped, the zombie fell sideways. Another ghoul grabbed me from behind. I struck its elbow repeatedly until its rotting arm fell off.

Jackie screamed as a cannibal corpse pinned her up against the wall. It tried to sink its teeth into her face, but she somehow grabbed its throat and kicked it, sending it flying.

“
Upstairs!” Nick shouted, gripping Jackie’s hand.

“
We have to find a way out!” I said, rushing into the master bedroom.

Jackie locked the door behind us. “That won’t hold them off long.”

I rushed to the window and pulled the curtains aside. More zombies than I could count littered the lawn. I bit my lip hard, knowing there was no way we could take on that size of an army. “Nick! They’re everywhere.”

“
Stay right here!” he said, then ran out of the room like a man on a mission.

“
What’s he doing?” Jackie said.

“
Looking for a better way out.”

She laid her head on my shoulder as the wails of the undead, gunshots, and the pained moans of the dying drifted up to where we were. I’d never heard anything so horrible as all that guttural, pathetic moaning and groaning.

“
Where’s Nick?” Jackie asked frantically.

“
Just give him a second. He knows what he’s doing,” I said, though I wasn’t so sure about it myself, because he’d been gone longer than I expected.

We both pointed our weapons at the bedroom door, just in case one of those humanoid creatures made it up the stairs. The gun shook in my trembling hands. The floor creaked under the weight of approaching footsteps, and my mind and heart raced wildly.

Suddenly, Nick rushed back in, his eyes wide. “The place is completely surrounded.”

“
We can create a distraction,” I said.

“
No time.” Nick locked the bedroom door and slid the wooden dresser in front of it, then he opened a window. “They can’t climb. I say we shimmy to the roof.” He patted Jackie on the shoulder. “How are you with parkour?” She cocked a brow and he continued. “That’s a military obstacle course.”

She let out a trembling breath. “Um, I’m not much of a roof-hopper,” she admitted.

“
Trust me, you’ll love it,” he said.

She slid her flashlight deep into her pocket, then put her gun in her holster. “Okay. I’m game. Let’s do this.”

Without another second to waste, we hurried outside and clambered to the top of the roof. Intermittent flashes of lightning brightened the dark sky. Thunder cracked as rain fell. I was hanging on tight to the shingles when I suddenly heard scratching behind me. I suddenly felt as if I’d swallowed a bowling ball, or at least a decent-sized cantaloupe. I whipped out my gun and got in position to blow the zombie away.

“
Don’t shoot!” a guy said. “It’s just us—Mike, Sam, Jack, and Larry.”

I recognized the men from our group and let out a sigh of relief. Nick motioned for them to be quiet, and they scampered over next to us.

“
What
was
that?” one asked.

Nick motioned for him to shut up. There would be plenty of time for talking and reminiscing about that bitter nostalgia later; for the time being, our focus had to be on surviving and getting out of there.

More scratching caught my attention, and I figured a few more men had made it out. My breath caught when my gaze focused on green skin and eerily familiar white eyes. Aiming carefully, I shot the thing straight in the forehead, sending it plummeting off the roof to land in a slimy heap of rotted flesh and broken bones on the ground. I felt a temporary surge pride and victory, but that didn’t last long. The wailing dead were maneuvering through the window and climbing onto the roof, slowly approaching.
Are my eyes deceiving me?
I thought and almost hoped.
How is this even possible?

A zombie jumped on Jack and they tumbled down the sloping roof, crashing to the wet ground where a group of zombies had gathered. Jack screamed and screamed as they fell to their knees and pounced on him like a pack of hungry wolves devouring his flesh.

Mike aimed his gun at Jack and shot him to ease his suffering. His screams immediately ceased.

“
Jump to the next roof,” Nick ordered, pushing Jackie in front of him.

Before I could even say a word, she hopped across to the other house, followed by two of the other men. As I crawled over to the edge, something grabbed my foot. I flailed and kicked the zombie’s head so hard that it let go of my foot, and then I fired three consecutive shots into the zombies shuffling toward me. Other zombies grabbed Mike, who was next to me. I reached for his hand as they tried to drag him off. I’d never seen anybody so frightened.