The Zombie Chronicles - Book 5 - Undead Nightmare (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) (17 page)

“No!” Asia said. “That’s not true.”

“Don’t engage her, Asia,” Nick cautioned. “You can’t reason with a hybrid.”

My heartbeat thumped in my chest as I carefully stood and said, “I-I don’t believe you, Jackie.”

“Sit down, Dean!” my brother said.

I kicked the side of the truck as hard as I could to release the pent-up anger that was lurking inside of me. Nobody stopped me or said anything as I continued kicking the steel truck wall.

Asia tried to comfort me after I stopped kicking, but Nick pulled her back. “Just let him be. He needs to cool off.”

She nodded and sat back down.

We had a decision to make. No matter where we hid Jackie, she’d be able to call for the zombies to help her. The other hybrids had called hordes to surround the nursing home to keep us from leaving the city. I knew it was dangerous to haul Jackie around, because she could always alert her undead counterparts with the strange psychic connection that hybrids had. It was no coincidence that zombies had tried to attack us three times since we’d come to Jackie’s rescue, but as true as it was, that didn’t make the harsh, cold reality any easier to swallow.

Nick’s flashlight wavered as we hit the bumps.

Asia turned to look at him in the dim light. “Zombies can’t get us while we’re moving, but the second we stop, we’ll be in trouble. She’s like bait, and they’ll always come for her. I understand friendship, Dean, and I know you care deeply about Jackie, but when it comes to survival,” she said, pausing and taking a deep breath, “well, I wanna live.” She slung her rifle over her shoulder. “Thanks for the weapons, and it was nice to meet you all, but I’m afraid I’m gonna have to part ways with you at our next stop.”

“What!?” I said in disbelief. “Asia, you can’t just go out there like some rogue, all by yourself. It’s too dangerous, and you’ll—”

“Yeah, the zombies are dangerous, but it’s far more dangerous to ride around with a come-and-get-it beacon summoning the zombies right to us. The truth is, I’ll be far safer out there.”

“Let her go, Dean,” Jackie said in a deep, frightening voice. “She isn’t worth it.”

I ran a hand through my hair as I tried to think things through. Asia was tough, and she’d made it through a lot, but I feared for her safety, and I didn’t want to lose her. “I thought we were a team.”

Asia shook her head. “So did I, but real teams look out for one another and do what’s best for the group. You’re willing to put every single one of us in danger because your judgment is clouded by the crush you have on Jackie.” She motioned to Nick. “He won’t ditch her because he’s loyal to you and because he has a crush on her cousin. He knows Claire will ditch you guys in a heartbeat if you refuse to help Jackie. You’re both endangering the group because you’re blinded by love, and I won’t be part of a team with blind leaders.”

“What do you expect us to do?” I asked. “Just drop her off and desert her?”

“Not at all,” she said, looking at me with a dark gleam in her eye. “Dean, you want to rid the world of zombies, and you and I both know we can’t just unleash a stray hybrid on the unsuspecting public. That killer over there has all of Jackie’s cunning, and she’ll use it to devour dozens of survivors.”

“Are you suggesting that we...” I shuddered unable to finish the question. There was no way I could kill Jackie, especially before we found the lab. “No!” I said, my voice thundering. “I’ll have no part of it!”

“That’s Nick’s decision, not mine.” She looked over at him. “Well, fearless leader? Set your emotions and your feelings for Claire and Dean aside for a moment, and tell me, what’s really best for the group?”

Nick looked at me and winced, as if he was about to break bad news. “Dean, Asia brings up some good points. Jackie’s a hybrid now. I’m sure Asia’s not trying to hurt you purposely, but she sees things more clearly because she isn’t…well, personally involved like we are.”

“How can you defend her, Nick? We’ve gotta give Jackie a chance,” I pleaded. “You fought for Val when she was a zombie, and if things were reversed, Jackie would fight for any of us!”

“Val couldn’t call other zombies,” he said in a stern voice. “Like Asia said, we were nearly attacked three times the second we had Jackie in our possession.”

I rolled my eyes, realizing that Asia was winning him over. “We have to at least get her to the lab so the scientists can examine her. They’ll need her blood because she’s the only hybrid we have.”

“Examine her? Dean, nobody’s gonna touch her with a ten-foot pole when they realize what she can do,” Asia said. “She’ll only bring death to any human near her, and her appetite hasn’t even kicked in yet. Sooner or later, she’s gonna get hungry, and—”

“Fine. Just let Jackie and I go,” I said, “and we’ll meet up with all of you in a few days. I’ll take her to the lab myself. I know she’ll never hurt me.”

“Absolutely not!” my brother chimed in.

“Even if you did get to the lab without her or her zombie buddies eating your heart out—literally—you’d be risking the lives of the scientists if you showed up at the lab with her,” Asia argued. “For someone who claims he wants to save the world, Dean, you sure are selfish!”

“Wow. You sound almost as cold as Nick,” I said.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry you see it that way, but I’m just giving you the facts the way I see them. Your love for her is going to get the scientists and all of us killed.” She handed Nick his walkie-talkie. “Stop the truck, Nick. Do what’s best for this group.”

“No!” I yelled. “You can’t just ditch her. That lab is Jackie’s only hope. If we don’t get her there, she’s as good as lost forever.”

“Dean,” my brother said, trying to remain calm, “I think Asia’s right. We can go our separate ways, find the scientists, and tell them about her. We’ll leave them some vials for their experiments, and leave it up to them what they want to do.”

My stomach clenched, and I stared at him as if he was crazy. “What are you saying?”

“It’s best for us to split up with Jackie and Claire,” he said softly. “Let’s just get back to the island. We can hook up with the scientists there or get a helicopter and fly the serum to other scientists.”

“And what about Val? What if
she
changes? She’ll be a hybrid too. She’ll be drawing zombies to us as we battle our way back home.”

He crossed his arms. “I’m willing to take the chance,” he said. “She’s our sister. Besides, I don’t think she’s going to change since she hasn’t yet.”

“I thought the same thing about Jackie!” I paused for a moment as I considered something. “Why didn’t you take that naïve attitude before? You were the one always warning us to be on alert, always afraid the girls could change at any given moment. You know what I think?”

“No, what?”

“I think
you’re
the selfish one, Nick. You’ll risk everything for your sister, and even if Val changes, you won’t give up on
her
. You hope she doesn’t change, but even if she does, you’ll be more than willing to risk everything to bring her back.” I shot him a look. “If that happens, the lives you’ll risk won’t just be yours and mine. If you insist on that big, happy family reunion and Val happens to turn, you’ll be endangering everyone on the island, including Mom, Dad, and Grams.”

“It’s no different than you being willing to risk the lives of the scientists!” Asia screamed.

“Val won’t change,” Nick said, meeting my gaze head on.

“You can’t know that for sure,” I retorted. I shook my head and held up a hand to silence him. “Let me try to put this into perspective without caring about anyone, Nick. Let me try to be like you for a minute. Why don’t we just ditch Asia and Jackie? Come to think of it, why don’t we leave Val and Claire on the side of the road too? Our sister and your girlfriend are liabilities, because they could turn into hybrids at any given moment. Matter of fact, maybe you, Kate, Lucas, and me—the only
normal
people left—we oughtta just rush back to the island and have a big freaking party? I mean, deserting the infected is the safest bet, right? It’s what’s best for the group, even though Claire, Jackie, and Val have been fighting right alongside us this whole time, and none of them would ever give up on us!”

Asia wrapped Nick’s fingers around the walkie-talkie. “Tell Kate to stop this truck, Nick. It’s the right choice.”

Chapter 14

When Nick just stood there, more dumbfounded and silent than I’d ever seen him before, Asia grabbed the walkie-talkie from him and stepped aside. “Kate, this is Asia. Pull this truck over right now. I wanna get out.”

“What?” came a static reply. “This is Kate. What’s up?”

“Stop the truck, Kate…now!”

“Why?” she asked, her voice raising an octave as she began to panic. “Oh no! Did Jackie break free or—”

Jackie’s evil laugh echoed. “Not yet,” she hissed.

Goosebumps rose on my neck. That wasn’t the Jackie I knew, and the eerie, threatening tone in her voice made me rethink everything Asia and Nick had said. Deep down, I knew they were right, but I couldn’t let myself give up on her.

A static voice came over the walkie-talkie. “Hey, we’re here. We didn’t wanna worry you guys, but we took a risky route because it was a major shortcut.”

“What?” Asia said into the mouthpiece.

“I just talked to Jonathon. Can you believe he’s still alive? He told us to park down the street.”

“The scientist is alive,” I mumbled in disbelief. “That’s fantastic!”

“Good,” Nick said. “It’s nice to hear some good news for a change,” Nick said.

“Yeah, and it’s good to have a connection. Can you imagine if we had to explain all of this to a bunch of strangers?” Asia said. “Still, I don’t know if we should take her in. I mean, she might—”

“We’re already here,” I said, cutting her off. I rushed over to Jackie and pulled the pillowcase off her head so I could stare into her cold, dead eyes. “Jackie, you have to fight this. Turn it off.”

“Dean?” she said, almost pathetically.

“Jackie, can you fight it?”

“I’m trying, but I don’t know if…it’s so hard.”

“Babe, I’m trying to save your life here. If you can’t turn it off, can’t take control, they’re going to kill you.”

“Knock me out, Dean.”

“What? I can’t hit you. I just can’t—”

“No…with chloroform, like…like Val,” she whispered. “The lab is bound to have some.”

“It would buy us some time,” Nick said, nodding. “Best idea I’ve heard all day.”

I bit my lip and thought about it for a moment. I didn’t want to do anything that would bring harm to Jackie, but we had knocked Val out with chloroform we took from a clinic when she first changed, and it hadn’t caused her any harm. I was certain it would work for Jackie too.

“You’re gonna keep her drugged up for days?” Asia asked. “That’s really your plan.”

“If that’s what it takes,” Nick said. “It’s her only chance, Asia. You were right about her being dangerous because she can summon zombies, but if she’s unconscious, she can’t communicate with them, and that will give the scientists the opportunity to at least look at her, to see if they can help.” Nick took a breath and then let it out slowly. “But we’re still a team, and we all have to be in agreement,” he said, arching a brow at Asia.

Asia thought about it for a moment, then looked from me to Nick to Jackie and back to Nick again. “Fine. If you can knock her out and keep her from communicating with the undead, I say we do it.”

Nick looked at me. “Dean, you need to know that if the scientists can’t help her, we’ll have to euthanize her. In her current state, she’s a danger to any human out there. We’ll be as kind and merciful as we can, but we can’t just knowingly walk away from a murderer.”

“We won’t have to,” I said confidently. “They’ll be able to help her. I just know it,” I said, though I wasn’t as sure about it as I sounded.

A moment later, a thin man opened the door to the truck. “Howdy, folks,” said the doctor we’d met at the nursing home.

“You’re alive!” Claire said, approaching him from the side. “We were afraid you had drowned.”

“I promised to meet you here if we got separated, right?” Jonathon said.

“Right.” She hugged him. “I’m so glad you’re okay. They stabbed Lucas and threw us off the bridge too.”

He cocked a brow. “They what?”

Claire gave him a quick rundown of what had happened, then glanced up at Nick and me. “How’s my cousin?”

“She’s fine,” Nick said, “for now.” He smiled at her and said quietly, “I know you wanna help, Claire, but let me take care of this, okay?”

She backed up. “Okay. I trust you, Nick, and I’m not about to get in your way. Just take care of her.”

Nick met my gaze. “Why don’t you stay here with Claire, Dean?” he said, though it sounded more like an order than a suggestion.

“She’s my girlfriend. I want to help.”

“I got her,” he said, securing the pillowcase back over her head. “Please get out of the way,” he said over his shoulder. He shoved me back and put Jackie over his shoulder, darting his eyes all around him the whole time, constantly on alert.

I called Jonathon over. “We managed to get Lucas some painkillers and antibiotics, but he needs to rest. Can we get him inside first?”