The Zombie Chronicles - Book 4 - Poisonous Serum (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) (25 page)

A zombie lurched at me. Air whooshed from my lungs as I fell backward, splashing in the water. Hands wrapped around my throat and began to squeeze as I was held underwater. My lungs burned and screamed for air. Dizziness flooded through me and I couldn’t breathe. I struggled to no avail. My head pounded. I tried to loosen its dead fingers but its grip was too tight. I wasn’t dealing with a
normal
zombie but a
hybrid
. I felt around the water and my fingers wrapped around what I assumed to be a candle opera. With my last bit of strength, I swung at the zombie’s head. It released me. I sucked in gulp after gulp of air. I couldn’t stop coughing.

Nick shot another zombie, then held out his hand to help me up.

Four more zombies came at us, but they met their demise when the burning ceiling creaked and came crashing down on them.

“
Let’s go!” Nick said.

I tumbled through the opening, crashing in a heap. My eyes were burning from all the smoke as I sucked in gulps of fresh air. When I looked back at the house, it was engulfed in flames. I took several breaths to slow my racing heart.

“
Nick!” a sniper yelled down from the roof next to us. “We’ve killed all the hybrids.”

Nick nodded. “Great job. Meet us back at the hideout.”

I watched the snipers from the different roofs leave their positions and head back to the nursing home. Claire was lying in the grass, her beautiful red hair swirled all around her. I felt for a pulse, and it was strong. I breathed out, relieved.

Nick scooped her up and held her close against his chest, and I could have sworn I saw a tear in his eye. “Follow me!” he said.

I nodded. Swallowing hard, I drew my gun and pointed ahead, even though there weren’t any zombies in sight.

Suddenly, a slithering, menacing voice called Nick’s name.

I turned around and gazed into the eyes of a familiar zombie with green skin, torn patches of skin, and the trademark white eyes. “Howard?” I whispered.

He aimed the gun at Nick’s head. “Give Claire back to me!” he hissed.

I knew at that moment that we’d been right: Not only did the hybrids retain their intellect, but also some of their emotional makeup. Howard had wanted Claire from the beginning, and even after turning, he’d wanted her bad enough to kidnap her. Nick had been accused of killing him, and in that moment, I kind of wished he would have done the deed.

Nick had put his gun away to carry Claire, figuring I could cover him.

I pointed my gun, but Howard didn’t pay me much mind, as if I was no threat at all. I was tired of people ignoring me and not taking me seriously. “Put the gun down, Howard!” I demanded.

He laughed. “Or what? You won’t shoot. You’re the baby brother with the heart of gold, remember? You’re going around trying to save everyone. I loved your little pep talk on top of the patrol car back at the school.”

“
Howard, I’m not playing,” I shouted. I’d been practicing at a shooting gallery for a straight year when the zombie thing happened, and I was the best shot on the island. I knew I could put him down before he put me down, but I was stopped in my tracks by guilt. I’d made Howard that way by bringing the serum to those people, and it was, in essence, all my fault that he was now an inhuman monster.
How can I just shoot him in cold blood?

“
Take the shot, Dean!” Nick shouted. “Put him down!”

“
Dean,” Howard said, speaking slowly through gritted teeth, “my skin might look like a zombie’s, but I’m as human as you are. I remember everything, even my love for Claire. I’m the same person, just in a different skin.”

I hesitated, my hands wavering. “You forgot to mention that your diet has changed drastically!”

“
You did this to me!” he shouted. “I know you and your brother and that sexy little girlfriend of yours have always thought of me as a monster, but do you think I
want
to live like a cannibal?”

“
I-I didn’t know this would happen,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

Howard stepped closer, aiming the gun at Nick’s head. “Give me Claire and tell your brother to throw the gun over here, or I will kill both of you right here.”

“
Talk to
me
, Howard,” I said, “not my brother.”

“
Why would I want to talk to you? You’re merely a shadow, nothing like your brother at all,” he mocked.

I took a breath and steadied my grip. “I’m
everything
like my brother. Maybe one day he’ll see it.”

Howard aimed the gun at me and prepared to shoot, but I was faster. In a split second, I shot Howard straight in the head, and he crashed to the ground with a
thud
.

“
Let’s go!” Nick shouted, helping Claire stay upright.

We didn’t give each other high-fives or congratulate one another. We just hightailed it out of there without another word, cutting through an overgrown yard and hopping a fence. We crept through a patch of vegetation and suddenly stopped as Nick scanned the area. A few seconds later, he gave us the okay to proceed.

“
Do you think they’re all dead?” Claire asked as we moved through the darkness.

“
I hope,” I said.

Nick blew out a breath. “We got enough to break the connection. Let’s find the others and get the heck out of town.”

We hurried down the lonely streets, killing a few zombies along the way, and made it back to the nursing facility. As I frantically knocked on the wood, my heart swelled with joy when I heard Val’s voice. She took down the boards and let us in.

“
We all made it!” she said in victory.

Kate embraced me. “I knew you guys would be back! So…mission accomplished?”

“
Mission accomplished,” Nick said with a nod.

“
Val and I just got back,” Lucas said, hugging me. “We must’ve just missed you. When we went to the lair, we were shocked to see the whole place up in flames. You did good taking out every single one of those freaks.”

Val wrapped her arms around me. “Of course my brothers would both make it back. They’re almost as tough as me,” she said, looking into my eyes. “You better never do that to me again. You scared me to death.”

Jackie screamed out in joy, and her face lit up. She embraced Claire and spun her around, laughing. “Claire, what happened?” she asked. “We thought you were…well, one of those things.”

Claire shook her head. “Howard kidnapped me. He told me he loved me and would never let me go.”

“
Really? Eww,” Jackie said, her voice wavering. “What a sick freak!”

They hugged each other once again, tears flowing from both girls.

Jackie then embraced me in a long hug and kissed my lips. “Thank you, Dean! I’ll never forget this—not ever.”

Claire jumped into Nick’s arms and kissed him. “Thanks for not giving up on me.” She nuzzled into his shoulder. “Howard told me you all thought I was dead—or worse.”

He stroked her back softly. “We thought you’d turned into one of the hybrids. Jackie was sick with grief, and I was, uh…lost without you.”

“
Well, you don’t have to be lost anymore. I’m all yours now,” she whispered.

“
Did he touch you or hurt you?”

She shook her head. “No, but he would’ve eventually. I feared he’d kill me within the week.”

“
This little reunion is nice and all, but I think we better take a rain-check on the party,” I said.

Nick chuckled. “Boy, you
are
like me. Why didn’t I see it before?”

“
Ha-ha,” I said.

“
You said everyone made it?” Nick asked.

“
Yeah,” Val said, “and lucky for us, the scientist was one of them.”

“
Bring him with us,” Nick said. “Let’s go find that lab and see if he can figure out what’s going on. Maybe he can turn this thing around so the others won’t go through the change.”

“
That’s what we’re hoping,” Val said.

Lucas threw a set of keys to Nick. “Kate and Asia rummaged through a house and found keys for you to a blue SUV.”

“
Sweet,” Nick said. “I’ll have to thank them for the wheels.”

He smiled. “Val and I are going to ride with them in the Lexus they found. That way nobody is too cramped in one vehicle. Not to mention, we’ll have back up in case we lose a set of wheels.”

“
Sounds great,” I said.

“
One catch though,” Lucas added.

“
What?”

“
They’re on the other side of town, past the flooded streets. There was no way I could bring them here to pick us up.”

“
I get it,” I said. “The roads are just too bad. Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go get our new vehicles,” I said.

“
My thoughts exactly.”

Nick handed me the keys. “Once we make our way over there, you wanna drive?”

I smiled, gripping the keys tightly in my hands. For the first time in my life, my brother was giving me the respect I deserved. We packed up and grabbed supplies, then found the vehicles Asia and Kate parked on the edge of town for a quick getaway.

The sun shined as rain sprinkled lightly. As I walked through the abandoned town, down the crumbling sidewalk, something caught my eye. A tiny flower had sprouted up from the crack. How could something so beautiful grow in this post-apocalyptic world? When everything was dead and ugly? And then Mike’s words flashed across my mind: Never give up hope.

“
Will you look at that?” Val said. “Is that amazing or what?”

I glanced up at the blue sky and smiled at the rainbow to the left of us. I somehow knew we were going to make it. We just had to. Gripping my keys tightly, I jumped into the SUV and buckled up. My heart raced as I started the truck. We would be leaving this town soon! I pulled into the parking lot of the court house. That was our designated spot to leave from if anybody wanted to join us. Within an hour, a trail of cars lined up behind us. I was thankful it wasn’t as big as before. Once the scientist arrived in a white sedan, we took off.

I didn’t even look back as I took an alternate route and sped out of the city.

Rainbow or not, we still had to face an ugly reality. Nick had secretly packed rope and chains in the trunk. Nobody wanted to admit it, but we had no idea if Val, Claire, or Jackie would morph into something nightmarish, and we needed to be prepared. Some of the group went their own way, scared that if they changed, one of us would shoot them. Others decided to stay in the nursing home because they thought it was safe against the average zombie. Others scoured the neighborhood looking for transportation because they were more than willing to follow us. The human-to-hybrid conversion seemed to take place at different speeds, so I hoped we could get to the lab before it happened to our girls. Time wasn’t on our side, that was for sure, but I prayed to God that nobody would have to endure that.

All I knew was that we’d rescued Claire, everyone in our group was safe, I had my sister, we’d killed the hybrids, and—perhaps best of all—I had Jackie, my
girlfriend
.

I punched the gas, and nothing had ever felt better than driving away with a carful of precious cargo—the people I loved most in the world.

End of Installment 4 – See cover below for book 5.