The Zombie Chronicles - Book 3 - Deadly City (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) (4 page)

The girl’s voice screeched through the air. “You’re not safe here in Kingsville. I can tell you that for sure.”

“
The island,” my brother said. “We get there, and we can be safe.”

“
I hope so, Nick. I really, really hope so.” The thought of not having a safe place to live nagged at me. I had hope for humanity. I really did. But a tiny part of me wondered if we could ever conquer this virus. A part of me wondered if things would ever be normal again, if the future was even worth hoping for.

The door opened, and Lucas and the girls darted inside.

Frantically, Lucas flipped through the digital pictures on the camera. “All right! Check this out!” He pointed to a picture of a smiling, clean-shaven Tahoe, angling the digital screen toward the girl. “Who is this man?”

“
Sam. It’s Sam. It’s Sam. It’s Sam…” she said, repeating it over and over like some kind of parrot stuck on repeat.

“
So Sam
is
Tahoe!” I said with a gasp. “And all these people have been lying to us!”

Chapter 4

I stared at the picture on the camera. The idiot was smiling. He had the audacity to smile and party while my sister was living and breathing as a zombie. So help me, God, in that moment, I wanted to pound Tahoe more than I’d ever wanted to pound anyone before.

“
Tahoe and Sam
are
the same person,” Jackie said. “Tahoe came back to this town to be with his wife.”

“
So…Lucy is married to Tahoe?” I asked Nick.

“
Guess so.”

“
Now we definitely wanna meet her old man!” Lucas said.

Claire ran a hand through her hair. “If only she hadn’t sped away.”

I nodded. “I’m sure we can find her again.”

“
It all makes perfect sense though,” Jackie said.

“
It does?” Claire asked.

“
Yup. Tahoe came home to his wife and noticed that she and the entire town were acting nutty, so he went out to investigate it while his friend at the lab tested the serum.”

Nick pulled up a chair and scooted close to the housekeeper. “Where does Sam live? We don’t wanna hurt him. We just want the vials he stole from us so we can save our sister.”

“
I’m not saying another word,” she snapped, “unless you let me go.”

“
Listen,” Jackie said, “we’re talking about their
sister
. If your loved one was a zombie, wouldn’t you do anything to save them? What if there was a cure? You have the power to save her life, to reunite these brothers with their sister. This is a mission of love, and you could play a real role in helping to save other lives too. It will let us know if the serum actually works.”

“
A mission of love, huh? Is that why I’m tied up?” she asked sarcastically.

“
We couldn’t let you rat us out,” Jackie continued. “If you’d run off flapping your tongue to this mayor of yours, it would have been the end of Val. We’d have been arrested, and we wouldn’t be able to find Val or Tahoe…er, uh…Sam.”

“
Sam is not a thief!” she wailed. “You’re the ones tying people up! He’s a better person than any of you will ever be!”

Really
? I tried hard to remain calm and to keep from rolling my eyes.

“
If you don’t believe me, ask her!” The housekeeper pointed at an empty corner.

“
Great. Hallucinations, like all the others,” Nick said. “She keeps snapping in and out of reality. Try to keep her focused and lucid.”

“
We don’t care what his intentions were, and we’re not out for revenge. We just want one vial so we can save our friend,” Jackie said. “I bet you’d do just about anything to save someone you love.”

“
Don’t hurt him,” she said. “Ow! Gosh, it hurts!” she suddenly screamed, her brow furrowing as she winced with pain. “Hey, can I get some Tylenol or something? My head hurts so bad!”

“
Sorry, but we don’t have any,” Lucas said. “I wish we did.”

“
Sam’s a good guy,” she continued. “He’ll give you that vial. Just ask him.”

Yeah, fat chance,
I thought.
If he was such a nice guy, he wouldn’t have taken off with it in the first place.
The girl was so naïve to be taken in by Tahoe’s charms. “That’s all we want.”

“
He lives on the north side of town in a yellow house on Elm Street. I’ll take you there.”

Nick shook his head. “Absolutely not. The second we leave, you’ll start screaming and run away. Then we’ll be screwed.”

Lucas tried to smooth it over. “He can’t risk his sister’s life on the word of a stranger. We hope you understand.” He pasted on his most sincere smile. “We’ll let you go soon though. That’s a promise.”

The housekeeper glared at Lucas. “Ask all you want, but I’m not giving you his address.” She then turned to look to the vacant corner of the room, as if something had gotten her attention. “I know! I said I’m not gonna tell them! Sheesh!”

“
I gotta know one thing,” Nick said, meeting the stubborn girl’s gaze. “Why are they bringing zombies into Kingsville?”

Her eyes bulged, like something from a horror movie, which the whole experience was turning out to be. “Wouldn’t you love to know?”

“
We ran into Lucy. She told us this town has all kinds of secrets,” I said. “She said her friend was murdered. Why don’t you tell us what you know? We already know this town is up to no good. It’s no secret that something awful’s going on here.”

An evil grin spread across her lips.

Lucas handed the girl a bottled water. “Are they hurting strangers who seek shelter in your city?”

She shot me the most creepy smile I’d ever seen. “Yep…and you’re next.” Then she began to laugh wickedly, like that pea soup-spitting chick on
The Exorcist
.

I ducked as she suddenly threw the bottle at me, almost hitting my head. “What the heck?”

“
Why is Dean next?” Claire asked.

“
Not just him. All of you,” she said in a rapid, lisping voice. “You’re all gonna die! You’re all gonna die! Die, die, die, die, die! And guess what. There’s no escape.” She sang the words out in a mocking way, as if she was possessed. I was beginning to wonder if we hadn’t died and gone to hell somewhere along the way, because there seemed to be demons lurking in everyone we met.

“
So they’re stealing people and bringing in zombies. What does that mean? And where’s Val?” I asked.

“
If your sister wasn’t shot on sight, they probably took her to the place with all the others, so they could play with her! Playtime! Playtime!”

“
To play?” I asked.

She cocked her head, and her eyes seemed to bulge even more if that was humanly possible. “I know every single little thing they’re gonna do to you,” she hissed.

“
What?” Lucas asked in a calm voice.

“
You’re all gonna die! You’re all gonna die! Die, die, die, die, die!” she screeched in the most demonic voice I’d ever heard, something no Hollywood soundstage could replicate.

Nick touched his chin, unfazed by her chilling voice. “Well, I, for one, would like to know how I’m gonna die. If you’d care to elaborate, that’d be fantastic.”

“
Stop!” she yelled before she gripped her head and squeezed her eyes shut, then suddenly slumped over.

I gasped. “Is she okay?”

Jackie felt her neck with her fingers. “She’s got a strong pulse. I think she just passed out.” She shot Lucas and Nick a look. “Lucy was complaining of headaches too.”

“
So was the nurse who examined me,” I said. “She blamed it on migraines and got really ticked off when I suggested she lie down for a bit.”

“
Headaches, huh? Hmm,” Claire said.

“
What is it, Claire?” Jackie asked.

“
I think infected is the right word after all. These people are sick with some kind of virus,” she suggested. “Something’s spreading in this town…and there’s no CDC to call.”

“
Let’s just hope we don’t catch whatever it is,” Lucas said. “We’ve all survived SARS, anthrax, swine flu, mad cow disease, and bird flu. I’m in no mood to go to my grave from zombie-itis.”

“
You two might be onto something. I think they’re all turning,” Nick said.

Lucas shook his head. “No, this is something else. Their eyes aren’t turning white, and their skin isn’t peeling whatsoever. They’re not even green.”

“
The virus has mutated before,” Nick said. “Remember when all this first happened? It turned everyone into a zombie instantly. Then, later on, it took five days to complete the process.”

“
Well, we know there’s a lab,” Lucas said. “We also know they’re bringing in zombies to experiment on. I think an experiment got out of control, and now it’s affecting everyone in this town.”

“
Does it really matter?” Jackie asked. “Both theories suck, and neither one makes us any safer. Either the townspeople are turning into zombies or—”

Claire cut in. “Or they’re being infected by an experimental virus from the lab?”

I swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump that was growing in my throat. Not only did we have to deal with the crazy townspeople bringing in zombies and kidnapping people, but now there was a possible outbreak to contend with.

“
I say we find that lab,” Claire said. “How much you wanna bet we’ll find Val there?”

Lucas nodded. “I agree.”

“
I say we go after the cure first,” Jackie said. “That way, we can give it to her the second we find her.”

Nick nodded. “Let’s look for Tahoe first and get those vials and we’ll make him tell us where the lab is.”

“
Sounds like a plan to me,” I said. “I just hope we’re not already contaminated.”

“
Contaminated?” Nick laughed.

“
You know what I mean—infected.”

“
Think about it,” Lucas said. “We didn’t turn the first time because we’re not the right blood type. We’re immune.”

“
You mean like these people?” I retorted. “Because they survived the initial outbreak too.”

“
Let’s just try to stay positive,” Jackie said. “Let’s get moving. The faster we can get the heck out of this town, the better.”

I opened the door, knowing it was useless to argue. None of us really had any idea what was going on. I just hoped we could make it out of there alive—and not infected. “Let’s go,” I said in a huff, ready to get the awful show on the road.

Chapter 5

We found Elm Street rather quickly and drove slowly past the houses in the neighborhood.

Nick pointed at a yellow house. “I think that’s it. It’s the only yellow one. I hope our Merry Maid wasn’t bluffing back there. Last thing I wanna do is step into a real, live
Nightmare on Elm Street
.”

“
Doesn’t matter,” I said. “Even if she is, all we have to do is ask people where Sam and Lucy live. It’s a small town. Somebody would eventually tell us.”

“
True. Tahoe can’t hide, now that we know his true identity.” Nick
parked the truck down the street by a giant oak tree.

Right. As if we aren’t gonna stick out like a sore thumb no matter where we park and who we ask,
I thought.
Everybody knows everybody in this place, and they know we’re outsiders.
All things considered, I would have rather taken my chances with Freddy Krueger than with zombies and some unidentified flying virus, but I really didn’t have a choice.