The Zombie Chronicles - Book 4 - Poisonous Serum (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) (15 page)

She smiled again.

I walked out, nodding at the people standing guard.

Lucas was leaning against the wall, waiting on me. “Can you believe she kicked me out like that?”

“
You were kind of…blunt. Why didn’t you just save your opinions for me?”

“
She told me to be honest,” he said.

“
You know women never really mean that,” I said, letting out a huff. “If they did, they wouldn’t go around asking us if their clothes make them look fat.”

Lucas laughed.

“
Anyway, what’s our next step?”

“
We need to get the heck outta Dodge, man. This is all getting a little strange for me. I’m gonna get a group together and see if we can find an alternative route out of here so the flooded roads won’t be a problem.”

I gave him a fist bump. “Great idea. I think we’ve overstayed our welcome here.”

“
You’re tellin’ me.”

Chapter 11

I leaned back in the leather chair, with Jackie on my lap. The room filled with people, all pouring in so we could discuss our findings. It was something like a press conference, only without the press.

“
We didn’t find a thing,” I said.

“
None of us did,” said a guy in a red cap. “I don’t think there was ever a zombie in the first place. It was dark, a little spooky. I’m sure somebody’s imagination got carried away. Asia’s bite was examined by multiple people and deemed not to be a zombie bite.”

“
I agree,” said another man, nodding. “We’re all freaking out over a girl’s exaggeration or imagination. Heck, I wouldn’t put it past her to have bitten herself just to get attention.”

“
I
saw
the zombie,” Nick said firmly.

“
Nick and I are both in the Army,” Lucas said. “We’re trained to pay attention to detail. I don’t know what Asia’s deal is, but I’m telling you, if Nick says he saw a zombie, it wasn’t a figment of his imagination.”

The man in the red cap sat down. “Then why didn’t we find it?”

“
Because it broke out of here,” Jackie said.

“
No, honey,” the man said. “Those things don’t know how to grip an axe, let alone swing one.”

The woman who’d initially accused Nick of killing Howard walked up to us. “What if there’s no zombie at all? What if you guys are just making all this up to cover your tracks? What if Nick killed Howard so he could have Claire, and now he’s killing others because he’s some kind of lunatic? I bet
he
bit Asia and didn’t finish because he got spooked when others came. That’s why the bite is human!”

Murmurs and whispers spread across the room like a cancer, and I worried that people were starting to believe her ridiculous story.

Now that she had everyone’s attention, the woman continued her long-winded speech. “
Nick
attacked and bit Asia. She thought it was a zombie because it was dark and she’s stressed out. Nick, Val, and Dean are just playing off of her story, claiming that there’s a zombie on the loose to cover for Nick’s crimes. They’re all in on it! And I’m telling you there’s
no
zombie!”

“
That’s ridiculous,” Nick said. “It’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard!”

“
Nick was with Val and me during the search,” I said.

The woman glared at me. “How convenient. Why wouldn’t you cover for him? You’re his baby brother, aren’t you? And Val’s his sister!”

“
I’m telling you the truth!” I shouted, getting a bit out of control and worrying that the whole thing was going to spin out of control.

She rolled her eyes and continued. “Nick killed Howard because he wanted Claire, but Claire wasn’t enough for him. Nick stalked Judy, and now she’s missing. Nick’s a serial killer, and his friends are covering for him. I say we toss him out of here!”

“
Nick needs to be detained to a room, like a jail cell,” a man shouted.

Kate glanced over at me. “They want to take Nick prisoner?”

“
This isn’t good. If they gang up, we’ll be outnumbered.”

“
It might be best to split from this group,” she whispered. “I’m an outsider like you, and I don’t trust these people. We can’t travel with people who don’t have our backs.”

I nodded knowing she was right.

“
If Nick’s a serial killer, he needs to be confined,” a woman shouted.

My frown deepened. “My brother is not on trial.”

“
Why don’t we have a trial?” the woman said. “Right here. Right now.”

“
Where do you come up with this stuff, lady?” Lucas asked. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. You been sneaking the medication from the nurses’ station? Or maybe if you haven’t, you ought to. I saw some Prozac down there.”

“
Kate’s right. We need to get away from these people,” Nick said in my ear. “I can’t work with people who are accusing me of being Ted Bundy. Next thing you know, they’ll be tearing up the floorboards to see where I supposedly hid the corpses.”

“
Dude,” Lucas said, “let’s cruise on out of here, pronto. These people are nuts, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that woman over there rallies up a lynch-mob to come after you. I say we brave the storm. We can always hoof it past the flooded roads and look for a deserted set of wheels outside of town.”

Larry walked to the front of the room. “Nick is the best thing that ever happened to us. Do you really want to chase him away on a false accusation?”

“
We can’t have a serial killer be our leader,” a man shouted.

Val looked at the group, her arms crossed. “That’s enough!”

Ignoring Val, the woman continued her accusatory rant. “What do we really know about you guys anyway? Most of us have known each other our entire lives, but you?” She pointed at us with a crooked finger, as if she were a judge handing down a sentence. “You’re all new in town, aren’t ya? We don’t know you from Adam. For all we know, we coulda hitched up with the devil himself and his minions.”

“
We’re not murderers,” I retorted. “If we were, would we have risked our lives to save all those people from the elementary school? We did it because we care.”

“
He’s right,” somebody whispered.

“
Look at everything they’ve done to help us,” another said.

I smiled inwardly, realizing that the people were coming back on our side.

Nick looked intensely into the crowd. “Is my interrogation over or do you have more questions you need to ask me? Because I have nothing to hide.”

“
Nick,” a red-headed woman said. “You gave us the cure. Why would you kill us? If anything, you gave us hope and a future.”

Nick gripped her hand. “Thank you for believing in me.”

“
We all believe in you,” another woman said.

“
Something else is happening,” a man said. “And we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

A tall guy with shoulder-length hair suddenly burst into our little meeting. “More people are missing!”

I drew in an unsteady breath. “How many?”

“
At least five.”

“
Is Judy one of them?” I asked.

“
No. I didn’t know Judy was missing.”

I sighed. “Make that six.”

“
You’ve gotta be kidding me,” the man said. “What’s going on?”

“
So now there’s some kind of kidnapper in this place, some phantom coming in and stealing people?” a woman shrieked. “We should never have come here!”

“
Or there’s a serial murderer among us,” somebody else said.

“
This is all freaking me out. I’m thinking we might be better off out there, facing the zombies!” said someone in the crowd.

The man let out a sigh. “We found another breached window too.”

The woman’s eyes widened. “Something’s just coming in and picking us off one by one. This is like the plot of every sorry straight-to-DVD horror film I’ve ever seen—only it’s real!”

“
We need to make a mass exit, rainstorm or not,” a man shouted.

I wrapped my arm around Jackie and pulled her close, not sure what to think and certainly not sure what to do.

Nick paced the floor as he pondered everything. “Whoever made that hole was human.”

A short man inched forward. “Tahoe was keeping family locked up in a shed or something. Maybe humans in this town are keeping their loved ones locked somewhere…and they’re harvesting us for food, like freaking livestock!”

“
That’s a horrible thought,” a woman said. “If that’s the case, we need to leave.”

Many scenarios had crossed my mind, but not that one. The thought of somebody stabling us there to feed their zombie herd nauseated me. Ironically—or maybe not so ironically—the idea of ending up in someone else’s stomach turned mine.

“
What if our missing loved ones are still alive?” a man said. “What if it was your brother or sister out there?”

“
We have to find them,” another woman chimed in. “I won’t leave without my sister!”

“
Lucas and I will walk the neighborhood and see if we see anything odd. I’ll make one more sweep of this building and the neighborhood to see if we can find anyone, and then we’re leaving. It’s your choice to stay or go. For anyone who wants to come with me, be prepared to take off in two hours.” Nick then motioned us over to the corner of the room. “This place isn’t safe. I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m not sticking around here to find out.”

“
If the rain and wind doesn’t stop, we can hole up somewhere else until it dies down,” Lucas suggested.

“
We’ll find other shelter, but staying here is not worth the risk,” Nick said.

“
What if the others don’t want to drive in that typhoon outside?” I asked.

“
Then we leave without them,” Nick said. “I’m not here to make everyone happy, Dean. Like all these people, I’m just trying to survive. We shouldn’t even be sticking around to hunt for people who are most likely dead, but I figure it’s the least we can do.”

“
Let’s sweep the area like you said. Just one time, and then we’re outta here,” Val said. “We owe these people that. We’d do it if our loved ones were missing.”

I nodded, then glanced around. “Hey, where’s Claire?”

“
She went back to the room,” Jackie said.

“
I’m gonna go fill her in on the plan,” Nick said, walking off.

“
Leaving is probably for the best,” Jackie said. “I thought this would be a great place to hide out for a while, but I guess I was wrong.” She shook her head in confusion. “What do you think is going on?”

I shrugged. “I wish I knew, but I’ve got no idea.”

A few minutes later, Nick rushed back into the room, his eyes wide with worry.

“
What’s wrong?” I asked my brother.

“
It’s Claire. She’s…I can’t find her anywhere!”

Jackie jumped up, her eyes frantic. “What? What do you mean you can’t find her?”

His voice tightened. “She’s just…gone.”

Jackie took a step back, clutching her heart. “No, Nick. Don’t say that. She can’t be. Not Claire.”

“
Let’s all go look for her!” I said, rushing back to the room and frantically calling her name. I walked down the hall with my gun drawn and checked every single room. We all split up and started hunting for her, but just like Nick said, she was nowhere to be found.