Mail Horror Bride (One Nation Under Zombies Book 1) (32 page)

Hal turned toward Angela, who stood outside the door to the store watching them. “Angela, we’re taking that blue Taurus across the street. Get in it and wait for us.”

The girl did as told, glaring at her until she reached the end of the small parking lot and had to pay attention to where she was going. Hal scanned the area, looking for threats, before focusing on Janjai again. “She was raised to only take a life when necessary. It may seem strange to you but people like Angela and I, we can see the darkness in people. We know when they have been marked by evil and there is no other choice but to end their life to protect others.”

Janjai shook her head. “If you believe she is an innocent little girl you are blind. She likes to kill.”

“So you’re leaving us?”

“I can’t stay with a killer. It could be my blood spilled next.”

“We would never hurt you, Janjai. You are not evil. Don’t you believe that?”

She searched Hal’s eyes. “I believe you are well intentioned but confused. I believe she is a killer.”

Hal grinned. “Well, at least you have some faith in me. Stay with us, at least until we find your sister. You won’t make it alone.”

A groan came from behind her and she turned to see four dead people walking toward them from around the side of the store.

“Gunshots,” Hal said, sighing. “I’m sure there are more than them headed this way. Let’s go, Janjai. Unless you think you can outrun them all on foot.”

“Fine.” She turned toward Hal. “But when I find my sister I am going with her.”

“Then let’s get you safely to her.”

“Why is it so dark?” Angela asked as they traveled the expressway.

“One of the headlights is out.” Hal slowed down as they approached a wrecked car and carefully avoided hitting it. He checked it out as they passed. No one was inside and the dried blood splashed on the door indicated what had happened to the driver. “So what happened back there? Now that Janjai’s asleep, why don’t you tell me your side?”

“I did. The men were evil. They wanted to make us theirs.”

“Both of them?”

“I did what had to be done, Hal. I know the rules.”

“Who do you follow?”

“You, Hal. I follow you.”

“No. You follow the same leader I follow. A smite is not righteous unless you are doing it for God.”

“I know, Hal. I just meant that I’m doing like I was trained, by you and my dad.”

He looked at the girl out the corner of his eye as he continued driving. Eating the candy bar, she looked like a normal kid, but she’d already smited three people in addition to any zombies she’d had to destroy. But were they smites? Were they righteous? He wanted to believe but he knew better than anyone that looks could be deceiving and the devil could whisper into anyone’s ear, influencing them if they were not strong enough to resist. Janjai had no reason to lie, nothing to gain from turning him against Angela. But she was Paul’s daughter. Paul, the closest thing he’d had to a brother. That made her family, his to protect.

“Look out!”

Hal saw the wall of zombies ahead and swerved for the off ramp, scraping the side of the car as he barely made it.

“Hal?” Janjai woke with a start.

“The expressway was blocked by zombies,” Hal explained, turning the wheel hard to keep from going into the guard rail as he maneuvered the curved off ramp. “I had to make a last minute exit. Sorry about the noise.”

“Is the car alright?” Angela asked.

“Yeah, just dinged up.” No sooner he’d spoken the words and a pile of mangled car parts appeared before them. “Hang on!”

He tried to swerve around the remains of the wrecked car but couldn’t avoid all the pieces. They jostled as he ran over some of the twisted metal and a loud pop like a gunshot indicated they’d just blown a tire.

“Are we about to lose this car too?” Angela finished the last of the Snickers she’d been munching on.

“I’m thinking so.”

They made it off the expressway but the car made a lot of noise. Beside the fact they were driving on a rim, something had caught on the bottom of the car and was currently screeching on the road as they dragged it along.

“Do I smell gas?” Janjai asked.

“Yep.” Hal looked at the gas tank, noticing it going down. “I think we sprang a leak.”

“How long we got?” Angela asked.

“Not very.”

“And where are we?”

“Somewhere in Kansas. Check the map.”

The lone headlight flashed on a trio of zombies in the road and Hal swerved again, leaving the road entirely. He dodged trees as the car started to die.

“Hal?”

“Just hang on. We’ll be ok.” He silently prayed as he gripped the wheel and turned, barely avoiding a large Oak before the car came to a stop.

They were on a hill overlooking a large building and parking lot where a mob of zombies walked around aimlessly. A building with light showing through the cracks of the boarded up windows.

“That building has power,” he said. “What is it?”

They looked closer. The name of the building wasn’t lit up, smart considering it saved electricity.

“It looks like a Wally’s Club,” Angela said. “They have everything there. Groceries, guns, ammo, furniture, clothes, a pharmacy. It’s a huge megastore. How is the light on inside?”

“Generators,” Hal answered. “There must be someone inside.”

“We have to get inside,” Janjai said, sitting forward. “Trust me on this.”

Hal turned toward her. “If there are people inside they could be dangerous.”

“We will be safe. I dreamed of it.”

“You what?” Angela asked.

“I dreamed of this. I did not know it was this until just now, seeing it. My sister has dreams that give her direction. I never have but I have dreamed of this place. I know it is where we should be.”

“And finding your sister?”

“If my sister were with me she would tell me to follow the dream. We must.”

“So how are we supposed to get inside?” Angela asked. “The parking lot is crawling with zombies and it looks like the front windows and doors are all boarded up or blocked.”

“There should be another entrance beyond that gated area there,” Hal thought out loud as he pointed to the gardening area at the back of the building. “We just need to get to that fence and climb it.”

“What about the people inside?” Angela asked. “Did your dream show anything besides the building?”

Hal turned to see Janjai’s eyes averted with embarrassment. “What is it Janjai? What did you see?”

“I saw a big bird land on the roof and the doors opened.”

Angela burst out laughing then froze, pointing ahead. “Holy crap.”

A helicopter zigzagged through the night, its shadow under the moon looking like a large bat or a bird with broken wings. “There’s our bird,” Hal said, smiling, feeling more hope than he had in a long time.

“It looks like it’s about to wreck.”

“Or land on that rooftop. Let’s go.”

“You’re forgetting something,” Angela said as they got out of the car. “How are we supposed to get past all those zombies and make it to the building?”

“In my dream we came through smoke.”

“The smoke bombs we got from Maura,” Hal reminded them as he searched through his pack for them. “The smoke will help hide us from them since they can’t see well. We’ll send the car down the hill ahead of us, aiming for over there.” He pointed to the farthest edge of the parking lot where a group of cars sat. “The noise will draw their attention from us as we make our way down the hill at another angle, toward the back of the building.”

“I don’t know about this.” Angela peered down the hill. “It’s going to reach the bottom faster than us. How long do you think it will hold their attention?”

“Long enough. If you don’t think you can run fast enough, use those guys as encouragement.” He jerked his head back toward the direction of the road they’d swerved off of, gesturing toward the group of zombies lumbering through the trees. “We can’t fight all those off without guns and shots will draw the attention of the ones below us. We have to make it to that building.”

“Alright.”

“What do we do?” Janjai asked, panic rising inside her as the group of zombies from the road approached.

“Our bird just landed.” Hal pointed to the helicopter which now sat on the Wally’s Club roof as people spilled out of it, running toward a door. “Angela, put the car in neutral and turn the wheel to the left. Then we push. Once it gets rolling we run and meet up with those people inside.”

“This is where you choose to land?” Damian shook his head. “In the middle of a whole freaking crowd of zombies?”

“No, on top of a building in the middle of a whole bunch of zombies,” Cruz clarified, “and there’s a door. We can get inside. Wally’s Club has everything. It’s the best place I could think of to land before this thing fell apart. We couldn’t have made it much farther.”

“What if what’s out here is in there?”

“Highly doubtful,” Cruz said, coming around to help him with Raven, who hadn’t spoken a word since she’d quit that awful ear-splitting, guilt-fueling screaming fit. “Once the virus hit businesses shut down. This place should be empty.”

Damian hoped he was right. Raven was a warrior princess with that katana but in the state she was in now, he doubted she’d even swing if they came up against anything. That meant it was up to the three of them to protect her and themselves until she snapped out of the daze and came back to them.

“Come on, Raven. We need to get inside and see what’s in there.”

Raven just looked at him, her eyes blank.

“Maybe we leave her here?” Pimjai suggested, having gotten out of the helicopter with Damian. “Until we check the inside?”

“No,” Cruz said firmly, then lowered his voice. “I wouldn’t trust her not to jump. Jeremy’s death is hitting her a lot harder than it’s hitting us.”  

“You think she’s suicidal?” Damian looked back at her, taking in the vacant look in her eyes, the sag of her shoulders. “She’s just in shock, and mourning.”

“I just don’t want to take any chances.”

“You should have thought about that before we took that little trip to your mom’s place. I thought we were going to see if she was alive and save her, not beat the hell out of her corpse.”

Cruz looked away. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I understand. You acted like you wanted to save her, took us all there despite the danger, and all you wanted was to see the woman dead and get your last damage in. I don’t know what that woman did to you when she was alive but we didn’t ask to come along on this little revenge mission. We could have been safe at the Arizona military camp instead of traveling across all these states with you.”

“Both of you, stop,” Pimjai ordered, pointing at the edge of the roof. “Do you see the buckets?”

Damian turned his head and followed the direction of her pointed finger. Various buckets lined the farthest edge of the roof in three rows. “What about them?”

“Why do you think they are here? To collect rain. Someone is in the building.”

“Huh?”

Cruz answered for her. “She’s saying someone must be in the building because they’ve set buckets out to collect rainwater. Nobody would have done this before the outbreak.”

“Great.” Damian removed his rock hammer, feeling more secure with its weight in his hand. “Raven is definitely coming with us. We have to be careful. We don’t know if whoever is inside is going to be friendly or not and I don’t think Raven’s up to fighting right now.”

“I’ll protect Raven. You go in front, Pimjai takes the back.”

Damian started to argue but held his tongue. The man had a thing for Raven even if he was nuts. He’d protect her so his formation was good. Damian needed to be in front as the lookout and Pimjai watching their back was the best place for her.

“What is that?”

They looked where Pimjai was looking, past the parking lot, and saw a car careening down a large hill toward the far side of the lot. It was too dark to see anything else on the hill but Damian thought he saw something moving.

“We can’t worry about whoever is in that car,” he said. “Let’s get inside and see what the situation is in there.”

The door was unlocked, saving them the hassle of picking it or flexing muscle trying to kick it down. They entered quietly into the stairwell, Cruz guiding Raven as Damian led the way and Pimjai covered them from behind. It was dark so they went slow, careful not to misstep and fall headfirst down the stairs. They reached a door at the bottom.

Damian looked back at his friends and raised his index finger to his lips, not sure if they could see it but he didn’t want to risk being heard telling them to be quiet.