The Zombie Chronicles - Book 5 - Undead Nightmare (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) (2 page)

“Kid, that’s sweet and all, but this isn’t about friendships and gratitude. This is all about saving mankind.”

“You can have the bag,” Nick finally conceded, “but first you’ve gotta let Dean, Claire, and Jackie out of this death trap.”

“Hmm,” Larry said sarcastically, scratching his chin and looking down into the ravine, where the zombies were surrounding the smashed vehicle. “I’ll need a minute to think about it.”

“Please!” Jackie begged. “We’re no threat to you.”

“As a show of good faith, we’ll get the girls out, but then you give us the bag.”

I held my breath as the truck creaked, groaned, and shook while Jackie and Claire carefully climbed out the back. I was sure the thugs had no intention of letting us go; they didn’t seem to have any problem sending Lucas to his death. I was just glad they had enough heart to let Jackie and Claire live.

Jackie leaned over the wide metal guardrail, her eyes wide with terror. “Don’t worry, babe. We’ll get you outta there somehow,” she said, trying to sound brave as she consoled me.

“Give us the bag!” Sam demanded.

“Come and get it, boys,” Nick dared.

In a huff, Larry began to make his way closer to the doomed vehicle.

“No, Larry, don’t. It’s suicide,” Sam said, nodding down to the horror below. “You get in that car, and you’re all going to be flat as pancakes.” He then directed his attention to Nick. “We’ve got all your ladies now, son. I suggest you hand the vials over, before we have to waste a lot of ammo on them.”

“Like I said before, if you want the bag, come and get it,” Nick said.

“You little…I
knew
you’d never give it to us that easy,” Sam said. “You wanna play hardball? You might not care about dying, but maybe you’ll be more willing to cooperate if I threaten to shoot your girlfriend in the head.”

“No!” Nick shouted, uncharacteristic terror dripping from his voice. “You don’t wanna do that, Sam.”

I glanced up and saw them standing at the edge.

Larry grabbed Claire and held a gun to her head. “This gal’s been shot before, but I assure you she won’t survive this time. If you still won’t hand the bag over, your sister will be next to go.”

“Nick,” Claire yelled helplessly, “please just give it to them.” She frantically gripped the strap of her purse that was hanging on her shoulder.

“Don’t you dare hurt her,” Nick said. “You can have the bag. It’s yours. Just put the gun down and let her go, man.”

“No!” I yelled. I didn’t want any harm to come to Claire or Val, of course, but I didn’t understand how Nick could give up so easily after all we’d been through. “Nick, we’ve risked our lives to save those vials. How can you just—” I tried to plead.

“Vials or no vials, Dean, I always do whatever I have to do to save the ones closest to me,” Nick said.

Sam laughed. “Smart kid, listening to reason when it comes to your family and your little girlfriend. I’m sending Jim in through the back, since he’s lighter than either of us. As soon as he gets in arm’s reach, hand the bag over to him, or your girlfriend gets it in the head.”

Jim was the scrawniest of the bunch, weighing in at only about ninety pounds. As soon as the skinny man maneuvered his way inside, Nick held the bag out, and he snatched it in his bony fingers. “Give me all your weapons now!” he shouted.

“Look, slim Jim, that wasn’t part of the deal,” Nick argued. “I’m not gonna—”

“Sam, they won’t hand over their weapons,” Jim tattled over his shoulder.

“Do what the man says,” Larry said, nudging his gun up against Claire’s temple.

Having no other choice, we fumbled around for our weapons and handed them to him.

“That’s it,” Nick said.

“Heh. You think I’m dumb or somethin’?” the man asked.

“Well, now that you mention it—” Nick began.

“Give me the one on your waist and the one on your ankle,” Jim said, “and I know Dean has one in his holster.”

I sighed and hesitantly handed over my gun, and Nick pulled his remaining two guns out and handed them over as well.

“That’s it. You’ve got our whole arsenal and the vials,” Nick said. “Happy now?”

“Gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you,” Jimmy said, then inched his wiry frame out the back as his entourage cheered, whistled, and hollered.

“We got the bag!” Larry shouted, lowering his weapon.

While they were all distracted, I started to crawl over the seats so I could escape through the back, hoping it wouldn’t throw the truck off balance.

“Careful, man,” Nick whispered.

“Yeah…I know.”

“They gave you the bags as promised,” Val’s voice rang out. “Let my brothers out, and we’ll all go our separate, merry ways.”

“You’ve got what you want, you monsters. Please let them go!” Jackie shouted.

“They’re not gonna hurt you, Larry,” Claire pleaded. “You’ve got the vials and all their weapons. Can’t you just let us all go?”

Larry loosened his grip on Claire.

“See? Was that so hard?”

I heard the men’s taunting laughs, and then one of them said, “When the others show up, we’ll just tell ‘em it was a horrible accident.”

“No!” Jackie screamed. “Don’t you dare!”

“Nooooooooooooo!” Claire cried. “Please don’t do this.”

“Just let the boys out, and we’ll leave on foot,” Val begged. “You’ll never see us again, so there’s no need for you to commit any more murders today. It’s as simple as that.”

I swallowed hard as I crawled over the seats to climb out, trying to make a quiet escape.

“The others will be here any minute to see what the holdup is,” one of the men argued. “We’ve gotta get rid of them and make it look good.”

At that point, I knew the men were not going to leave us alive, and that meant I was going to have to fight. I was ready to face all of them if I had to. I’d cared about the vials before, but now I just cared about getting away with our lives.

“Girls, just calm down,” Larry said, looking right at Jackie. “A promise is a promise, and we’ll let your little fellas go.”

“Oh, thank you, Larry. I knew you’d—”

Larry held his hand up to silence my girlfriend. “Okay, Ed, let ‘em go…right into the river!”

The girls screamed and begged them again to stop, to no avail. The men rammed into us one final time and with a screeching groan, we flipped once and then plunged into the raging waters below.

Chapter 2

Stuck in the SUV, Nick and I were swept downstream, at the mercy of the current. Water sloshed around my feet, and I gulped hard as I looked around for any overlooked weapons.

“They didn’t get all the guns,” Nick said. “We need to find them if we’re gonna survive out here.”

I glanced out the back window and gaped in horror as the men threw flailing bodies off the bridge. My stomach clenched. “Nick, they’re throwing people off!”

“What!? Do you see Val?” he shouted, desperately searching the flooded floorboards for any kind of weapon, waterlogged or otherwise.

“I-I can’t tell.”

“At least she can swim,” he said, “and so can the other girls.”

“If Val and the girls weren’t thrown off the bridge, I’m sure they’ll get away and meet us at the lab.”

“Where are those extra guns?” my brother shouted.

“I don’t know. I don’t see any.”

He sighed as he felt around on the floor. “Forget it. If we don’t get outta here now, it’s gonna be our coffin. C’mon!”

The vehicle slowly sank, filling up with cold water faster than I thought possible. My pulse shot into overdrive, and it became difficult to breathe. I remembered that the first trick to surviving such an incident was to open the door. If we waited too long, the pressure differential would make that impossible. I tried the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge, even when I shoved it hard with my shoulder, sending pain coursing through me. My heart raced, but I knew I needed to stay calm and focused and keep my head straight. I knew panic would only make things worse, but it was hard not to panic when gallons of water were gushing in, already up to my knees.

What about the power windows?
I wondered.
Will they still work?
In an episode of
Mythbusters,
I’d seen that automatic windows don’t immediately short circuit underwater. I hoped that was the truth; our only other choice would be to smash our way out, and as strong as we were, neither one of us were Houdini or the Incredible Hulk.

Nick must have had the same idea, because he somehow managed to get his window to work and rolled it down. “C’mon!”

I followed him out the window as the deadly, cold water pounded against me. In seconds, the current swept me downstream. The roar of the river echoed loudly in my ears, even drowning out the sound of my own breathing. I gasped, almost inhaling a mouthful of water. I finally managed to turn over on my back, and I floated with my legs straight out, positioning myself to absorb the impact of debris or rocks or anything else that might be in my way. I didn’t want to be eaten by a zombie, and getting knocked unconscious during my little impromptu, raft-less white-water rafting trip would have made that a sure thing. I had no intention of drowning either, so I refused to let myself get pinned between any obstacles or to be pulled under and trapped by the underwater vegetation.

Tumbling, cold river water gushed into my mouth, pulling me under the surface. I fought the sensation to breathe, even though my lungs were on fire and my whole body was screaming for oxygen. With deliberate, long pushes of my legs and arms, I broke the surface and spewed the water out. There was no way I was going to let the undertow drag me down. I tried to break free of the fast-spinning, churning water, but vast jaws of swirling foam swallowed me up. I felt the tremendous force of the water washing over me, pulling me in, deeper and deeper. I twisted and fought again, and finally, I burst through the surface.

I sucked in desperate gulps of wonderful, glorious, awesome air. Roots and rocks grabbed at my feet, and branches and twigs scraped and poked me seemingly from all directions. My hands moved around me, frantic to grasp onto something—onto anything—but there was only water. The violent current pulled me under once again for a few seconds, but I found my way back up to steal another breath of air. My heart drummed harder against my chest, and more water rushed over my face. My eyes burned, and my vision blurred.

Then, finally and much to my relief, the river flow began to slow down. I had a fighting chance, so I grabbed at overhanging branches to stop my momentum.

“Dean!”

My heart leapt in response to the familiar voice, Lucas’s voice, and through blurry, drenched eyes, I saw him rushing toward me on the riverbank. I forced my burning muscles to propel me through the water. Gasping for breath, I swam toward shore until my feet touched the ground beneath me. The sand felt thick as it oozed over the top of my boots. I waded through the waist-high current that continued to tug at my legs with a violent undertow. My arms felt heavy and numb, and the pain in my legs intensified with the stifling weight of my wet clothes. Pebbles and sand shifted under my feet. Spluttering and coughing, I pushed the tangled hair out of my eyes. I climbed out, shivering as a cold breeze ran through my hair.

Piercing pain radiated across my chest and back. I bit my lip and held back a moan; finding my friends and my brother and sister was far more important than focusing on a little discomfort—or a lot of pain. I took another deep breath and forged ahead. “Lucas!” I called, stopping midstride.

Shadows stretched and shifted in the trees. Squinting, I peered closer to make sure the area was free of zombies, then leaned against a boulder to catch my breath.

Lucas clapped my shoulder as I doubled over, gasping for breath. My wet clothes and jacket clung to my skin and hung wet and heavy, weighing me down. Trying to stay warm, I absorbed every bit of sunshine I could.

“I-I’m so glad you’re alive,” I said.

He shot me his easygoing grin. “Meh, I’m pretty hard to kill. We should’ve never trusted those idiots.” Lucas held his shoulder with his hand as blood gushed steadily, then glanced at the river. “Did they throw Nick in too?”

I nodded and glanced down the river in frustration. I didn’t see Nick anywhere and hoped he hadn’t gotten tangled up in all those crazy vines and plants I’d felt grasping at my legs. I knew Nick could handle himself just fine, so I didn’t bother panicking just yet.

“Attempted murder, if ya ask me,” Lucas said.

My labored breathing eased, though my lungs still burned and my head pounded. “Yeah…at least. Those beasts were actually tossing people over the bridge,” I said.

“What!? Who?”

“I think…I’m afraid it was the girls.”

Lucas walked to the river edge and nearly collapsed.

“You’re hurt,” I said.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” he joked, rinsing blood off his hand and wincing. “Stab wound in the shoulder, but don’t worry. I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine to me.” I pointed to a large rock. “Sit down and keep pressure on it. I’ll go look for the others.”