My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road (27 page)

“Did somebody order a pizza?” she asked.

Kaylynn laughed at the inside joke.

I heaved a sigh of relief. We were safe.

“How did you get back here?” I asked.

She held up a security card. “Found this on one of the coats in the rec room.”

“Great!” Kaylynn said. “What about the Vectors?”

“I dodged some, but they’re coming back—”

Kaylynn pointed at Jewel’s feet. “Look out!”

I saw it as Kaylynn said it. I was too late. A gray hand clamped onto Jewel’s ankle and dug its nails into her. I stomped on its arm until it broke off. Jewel jumped away, crying in pain.

This wasn’t good. “You okay?”

Panic filled her face. “It burns!”

Kaylynn pulled Jewel’s pant leg up. Four deep gashes had lacerated her skin. Cold sweat appeared on her face. I couldn’t deny it. My little sister was infected.

“We need the vaccine.” I said, looking at Kaylynn.

She nodded. “Carry her. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Here.” I pulled Jewel onto my back. “Hold on.”

“It hurts,” she cried. “Am I going to die?”

“I won’t let that happen. Don’t go there!”

Ping!
Kaylynn had swung her bat. “Let’s go!”

And go we did. Kaylynn swung at a few more Vectors as I adjusted Jewel on my back. As soon as I was on my feet, we were running. The remaining Vectors made straight for us, so we veered around them and threw them off. Without ammunition, the shotgun was useless. I still had a few shots left in my Glock, but I couldn’t use the gun and carry Jewel at the same time.

The door had closed, but we had Jewel’s card that time. She gave it to Kaylynn, who then swiped it on the security panel. With a
swish
, we stepped into the dim corridor. Finally we were free from the horde, or so we had thought. The Vectors jammed their arms between the two closing doors. More joined in. Their combined strength—and mental strength—pried the panels apart.

“Where to?” Kaylynn asked, panting and sweaty.

I didn’t know. Sanders could be anywhere. I closed my eyes and tried to think of the directory that I looked at. We came from the center, and the corridor was a big square, a wing or lab on each side. Sanders had trapped us on the south side of the facility, and we had just come from the west. This left the chemistry and the research and development wings unexplored. If I had to guess, the vaccine would be in research.

According to the directory, it was behind us.

“This way,” I said, but then I froze again.

I could barely turn my head around. Cecil ran at us, using his zombie powers to hold us down. A dozen shuffled into the corridor with Black Bandana man and Cleft-Chin in the lead. Kaylynn was about to smack the Runner’s head into the outfield when an arrow whizzed by my ear from behind again. It lodged into Cecil’s forehead, sending the Vector to the floor. Only one person could’ve sent that arrow. Cody drew another arrow and aimed without looking at us. The Runner was down, but there were plenty of Stalkers ahead.

“Thanks,” I said. “Jewel’s hurt. We have to—”

He walked right past us, like we were invisible. Pulling the bowstring, Cody sent an arrow to his father’s head. His black bandana fell with his body. A second arrow later, Cody did the same to Cleft-Chin—and again, and again—until he ran out of arrows. Drawing a hunting knife from his buckle, Cody held it up and charged at the Vectors, stabbing a woman in the head. He wasn’t interested in running away from these monsters now, or trying to protect himself from them. He’d become a cold-blooded killer.

Blow after blow, Cody wedged himself into the horde until the undead shrouded him from view. He screamed. He cried. Out of pain or anger, I couldn’t tell.

“He’s lost it,” Jewel said. “I wanna go now.”

“Not without that vaccine,” I said, trying my best to stay focused. I didn’t like Cody, but I didn’t exactly want him to die, either. But if he wanted to sacrifice himself to give us time, I was grateful. “We need a distraction or they’ll trap us, no matter where we go.”

“Then go.” Kaylynn faced the coming horde, clenching her fists tight as the deep blue in her eyes gave way to a blood red. Her jaw tightened. Her arms shook. She was in Vector Mode again. I half-expected the Vectors to turn and run, but they wouldn’t stop.

“Don’t!” I said. “You promised you wouldn’t!”

“Jewel’s going to turn before I do!” Kaylynn turned away. “I can sense where she is, so get the vaccine and wait for me. I’ll find you.” She grabbed her dragon pendant, yanked it from her neck and handed it to me. “I want that back. Go on now. I won’t be long.”

The pendant was dear to her, so arguing with her was useless. “Right,” I said. “Don’t be long.”

She wrapped her arms around Jewel and me. “I’m right behind you.”

Whipping her long dark hair back, Kaylynn raised her bat over her shoulder and waited for the Vectors to come. I hadn’t taken five steps before I looked at Kaylynn again. If she fell into trouble, I couldn’t help her. What if she passed out? Would Vectors still leave her alone? I couldn’t. I just couldn’t leave her behind.

“We’ll figure it out,” I said. “Come with us.”

“There’s too many!” She wasn’t using her sweet voice that I’d fallen in love with. It was harsh. “Go!”

With her mind made up, there was no changing it. The first Vector nearly passed Kaylynn when she batted it down to the floor. She swung again. Three times. Five times. She even raised her hands and threw the Vectors back, only for them to get up and try their mindless luck at walking past her again. This was her fight. Not mine.

Tuning out her struggle, I ran as fast as I could.

With Jewel on my back, I went around the next corner and entered another long corridor, identical to the others that we’d seen. I drew a picture of the facility in my head as I ran, so we could escape the nightmare later. My only chance to save Jewel relied on that vaccine—and me. I had to find Sanders. We had to get the hell out of there. I couldn’t let fear hold me back.

Jewel was becoming less lucid each second. Her skin burned against my neck. I couldn’t believe how fast the infection had taken hold of her, and I had no idea how long it would take for her to turn. Both Cassidy and that man in Iowa were zombified within a matter of hours. What if we didn’t have hours? What if she fell unconscious and went straight to chewing on my neck?

Why wasn’t I having the same symptoms?

I hoisted Jewel up my back. “Almost there.”

“Hurry . . .”

Her weak voice compelled me to sprint through the doors of Research and Development. Like the Biology wing, we could go left or right. I imagined Sanders sitting next to a completed vaccine, like a kid who couldn’t wait to open his birthday presents. Was Sanders even aware that we’d freed his horde? I hoped not. If we weren’t careful, we would never escape.

I went down the left hallway, reading every label I passed. Offices, a test lab, a recovery room . . . None of them were the right place. Only a quarter of the lights were on, making it hard for me to judge where to go. We wrapped around the next corner, through a door much like the Biology storage room. I carried Jewel in and peeked through the window of a sterile laboratory. The lights were on. Fancy equipment littered the room.

This had to be it. The entrance had no handle. I didn’t know how to open it.

“Use the card, dummy . . .” Jewel uttered.

One security card later, the airlock door opened, and I jumped when a decontamination mist poured into the chamber. It wasn’t until we entered the room that I realized how disheveled the lab was. Papers lined the hard floor. One table had a few glass flasks and vials—half of them knocked over. The only noise in the big room was a white plastic-coated machine in the center, spinning a green liquid in glass tubes. Against the back wall was another window for observing another room.

Something small was moving around in the air on the other side. Whatever it was, it was too tiny to see.

I set Jewel on a chair, found my Glock and went to the window for a closer look. It had a variety of flowers inside, like a greenhouse. In the center was a wooden crate with evenly spaced slots. Fuzzy insects, each of them with yellow and brown stripes, flew from flower to flower. My skin itched. The room was swarming with bees. There were hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.

“Why do they have bees down here?” I asked.

“They’re too dangerous outside,” Sanders said. I spun around. The doctor had a weird pistol in his hand—a kind of injection gun. Jewel barely glanced at him, too weak to care. Not me. I refused to buy into Sanders’s fulsome smile again. “Not that it matters now,” he continued. “You’ve seen what they’ve done.”

If I’d seen such a thing, I totally missed it.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

Sanders adjusted his glasses and stepped forward. His eyes went to my sister. It wouldn’t take a genius to see that something was wrong with her. If I didn’t know who she was, I wouldn’t go near her either. Sanders made his way to me while looking the room over.

“Your sister is infected,” he said. “That’s too bad. Where’s your other friend?”

I wish I knew. Kaylynn could’ve been hammering away at one bloody skull after another still. Sanders didn’t know, and I thought he was on top of everything, but he wasn’t even aware of our releasing of his secret Vectors. When it came to that important detail, he had completely left us in the dark. We had reversed roles somehow, an advantage I wasn’t willing to give up.

“They scratched Jewel before you saved us,” I lied.

“Well, then. You’re just in time. The centrifuge is about to stop. When it does, we’ll test the new vaccine on your sister.” I assumed his gun had something to do with that. “Where is Kaylynn, and your dog? She’ll want to sample this vaccine. There’s more than enough.”

My mind went straight to his Vectors, his failed test subjects. “What if the vaccine doesn’t work?”

Sanders smiled. “Nature will do as it must.”

Like that made any sense. “What do you mean?”

“I understand if you’re hesitant to have your sister injected with an experiment, but take a look at her. She’s fading fast. This batch has the greatest promise.”

Jewel was about to pass out. I had to do something. Sanders was acting so cool and collected, innocent of wrongdoing, unaware of the truth that I knew. Taking Cody’s blood and keeping Vectors locked in a freezer—none of it made sense. The spinning machine beeped. The centrifuge ended its cycle. Sanders rushed over, unclamped one of the green vials and inserted it into the pistol’s grip. His eyes then quickly turned to my sister. He held the syringe firmly. “It will work this time.”

My joints locked up. “You’ve tried this before?”

The once cheerful Sanders considered me, his eyes frowning. “There’s no time for this, Jeremy. If I don’t administer this to your sister—” I pointed the Glock at Sanders, balancing the weapon in my hands. The doctor stopped where he stood and took a backward step. Both of his hands rose to his shoulder level. “Jeremy . . .” he uttered. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Where are the other doctors?” I said, not willing to give him an inch. “Why aren’t they helping you?”

“I can save your sister right now—” I pulled the slide back. That should’ve been enough to convince Sanders to drop the chatter and answer my question, which I already knew the answer to. Or thought I knew. “If I tell you, will you put down that dangerous thing?”

Cooperation. Finally. It’s not too much to ask for, is it? I lowered my aim to Sanders’s feet, and he moved closer to the window. His eyes turned from me and focused on the bees. “This isn’t my fault,” he said. “I can’t be held responsible. This chamber is a controlled environment, an experimental haven for a hybrid strain of
Apis mellifera
, known as the Africanized honeybee. You would know them better as killer bees.”

That was Sanders’s idea of an answer? I didn’t ask for a biology lesson. Apart from Vectors, he couldn’t have chosen a more chilling topic. I fought the urge to scratch myself. Damn my fear of bees.

“Do you understand the risks we take when we try to control nature?” he asked.

I shook my head.