Which had to mean there were a
lot
of them out there.
Oh. God. There
were
a lot of them. A dozen at least. How had Monica raised so many so fast? She couldn’t raise this many corpses all by herself, could she?
Worry about Monica later—get out of here now!
Shuffles and groans came from the darkness ahead of me and from either side. Slowly, as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I began to notice spots of red floating in the blackness. It was their eyes, the glowing red eyes of at least twenty Reanimated Corpses, and those were only the ones I could see. There were probably more behind me, closing in on my location, ready to tear my body apart as they fought for the chance to feed upon my—
Stop it! You’ve got to think, not scare yourself to death.
Okay, okay. I had to think. Think!
All right, so the
reverto
command was out. It shouldn’t have even worked the first time, considering the number of corpses I was dealing with. I could try the flame command, even though I’d already gotten in trouble for that once because, hello, I’d rather be in trouble than dead—but there was a chance that wouldn’t work either.
The Elders seemed to think the
exuro
command had only worked so well last night because the zombies were clones and therefore easier to overwhelm with one command. Kind of like burning a bunch of paper dolls that were all connected. It would take more power to burn twenty separate corpses.
But I didn’t have much of a choice. I still didn’t have the entire
pax frater
spell memorized, even though I’d been working on it during study hall. Besides, I wasn’t the type to carry a little dagger around in my wallet like Ethan the Always Prepared.
Even if I’d had one, however, I didn’t see how I’d manage to avoid getting eaten by one zombie while I was
pax frater-
ing the other.
So the flame command it was.
I pulled myself together, focusing my power as best I could with the grunts and groans growing closer and closer, and then threw everything I had into the flame command.
“Exuro!”
The backlash of the spell knocked my head into the tree behind me, making me see stars frolicking through the pillars of flame now lurching through the trees. Yes! I’d torched them good. I was a little wiped from the spell, but it wasn’t like I had to engage in serious combat or anything. All I had to do was hurry home and call SA so they could take care of these zombies before they set the park on fire.
I started hauling ass back toward the bonfire, scanning the ground for my bike, realizing too late that there were only ten or twelve burning corpses. The rest of them had made it through the spell unscathed. And now that the area beneath the trees was illuminated by burning zombie flesh, they could see
exactly
where their prey was running.
Five pairs of glowing eyes and rotted hands lunged forward to meet me as I raced through the trees, making me scream bloody murder. But then, who really cared if some non-Settler heard and came to investigate? I had bigger things to worry about at the moment than blowing my cover.
I spun around as fast as I could, sliding on the leaves, my hand dipping down to land in the mud before I managed to reverse direction and start scrambling back toward Clint Street. If I could just get back to civilization, I knew I would feel safer. If I could make it to the gas station, I could run in and get the night clerk to lock the door. Then my family would be relocated for sure, but at least I’d be alive to see my sixteenth birthday.
“Come on, come on,” I muttered under my breath as I dashed through the trees, dodging flaming zombies. I spied my bike on the ground but didn’t dare stop. I was faster on foot than most Reanimated Corpses, so if I could just keep pulling hard toward the street, I—
I screamed again as two more RCs lurched from the trees in front of me. I skidded to a stop, flailing my arms to get my balance before falling on my ass on the cold, wet ground.
“Exuro!”
I flung the flame command at the two creatures in front of me as I hurried to my feet, but this time nothing happened. I tried again and again, forcing the power out through my fingers no matter how exhausted I was becoming, but the things kept shuffling toward me without so much as a hair on their chins catching flame.
Behind me, I could hear the other corpses getting closer, so I cut to the left, running fast through the trees. I made it over a small hill and was really putting some distance between me and the things behind me when I realized I’d made another big mistake. Possibly a deadly one.
“No!” I smelled the water a few seconds before I splashed into it. The duck pond! I’d totally forgotten it was here, and there wasn’t time to go around. I’d just have to try to swim across and hope RCs wouldn’t follow.
Indian summer or not, the night temperatures had been getting down in the forties, and the water was frigid. My toes started to numb immediately, but I pushed on as fast as I could go. I was up to my waist, shivering madly despite the adrenaline rushing through my system, when I heard the splashes of first zombies entering the water behind me.
I churned my legs even faster, certain I would make better time walking than swimming since my best stroke was my dog paddle, and that sure didn’t get you anywhere very quickly. I pushed myself to move faster and faster, finally getting my arms into the act as the water reached my chest. I swiped cold lake out of my way, completely focused on reaching the beach at the other side . . . when it happened.
Preternaturally strong hands closed around my arm and I went under screaming. My mouth filled with ice-cold fluid and I began to choke, but still I fought, kicking and squirming, finally managing to tear free of the fingers locked around my elbow. I had broken the surface with a gasp, gagging and dizzy from the cold water, struggling to figure out which way I needed to go, when another zombie tackled me from the side.
Teeth tore into the hand I held up to block my face, but I didn’t have time to scream this time before I fell under. The zombie, who didn’t need to breathe, didn’t loosen its hold for a second. It only tore into the flesh of my palm even deeper while another RC grabbed my leg, pulling it to the surface before sinking its teeth into my calf.
Under the cold black water, I cried out in pain, unable to help myself even though I knew I was wasting the last of my air.
There were scarier things than being chased by zombies, I realized—things like knowing you were going to die and that, the next morning on their way to school, all the kids would see what was left of your body floating facedown in the Perkins Park duck pond.
CHAPTER 14
When I woke up, the clock on the wall said it was four in the morning. I was in a beige room, lying on a bed too firm and narrow to be mine. The lights were dimmed, but the night-light across the room was bright enough for me to see my mom curled up in a chair in the corner and my dad stretched on the tile floor near her with his St. Louis Cardinals ball cap over his face. They were both snoring, loudly. I always take my iPod on family vacations where we’ll be sharing a hotel room so I can plug my ears and tune out the ’rents because they both cause some major noise.
But at that moment, I didn’t want to tune them out. I was just so inexpressibly glad to see them. My throat got tight and I could feel tears pricking at the backs of my eyes.
“Mom? Dad?” My voice was hoarse and scratchy sounding and not very loud, but I guess anxiety had suddenly turned my parents into light sleepers.
“Megan?” Mom vaulted out of the chair and was on her way to me before her eyes even opened all the way. “Honey, are you okay?”
I reached my arms toward her like I used to do when I was tiny and she bent over my bed for a hug. I buried my face in her wonderful, familiar-smelling hair and gave in to the urge to bawl. Horrible, racking sobs shook my body, making my already achy chest hurt like nobody’s business. But I didn’t care. I was alive. Somehow, some way, I was
alive
.
I didn’t think I’d ever take that fact for granted again.
“Megan, you scared the hell out of your mother and me. What were you doing out by yourself?” Dad was on the other side of my bed, wrapping his arms around me and Mom, sounding like he was about to start crying too.
“I was stupid, so stupid. I’m sorry,” I sobbed, not wanting to tell the truth—that I’d gone to the bonfire to see Ethan. I couldn’t ever remember feeling so dumb in all my life.
Mom pulled back to look me in the eye. “If Barker hadn’t realized you were gone, you would be dead right now, Megan. Do you understand that? Dead.” Her eyes were tearing up, and I could tell how hard she was working not to lose it completely. “By the time he got rid of the Reanimated Corpses and pulled you out of the water, you weren’t breathing. If he hadn’t been there . . . ” She let her words trail off, but I’d already gotten the message.
Seemed I owed Barker a really,
really
big thank-you.
“I know. I’m sorry, Mom.” My voice was so small, it didn’t even seem like it was coming from me.
“Sorry is not going to cover it,” she said, the tears starting to fall. “You are never leaving the house by yourself again. Ever. Not even when you go to college, not even when you grow up and get married and have kids of your own.”
Then she started blubbering big-time, and so did I, and Dad was stuck there, trying to comfort both of us. Though he’d never been big on Settlers’ Affairs as an organization or the Elders as people, he actually looked relieved to see Elder Thomas and Elder Crane at the door to my room.
I was surprised to see them together at first since Elders do their best to pretend they don’t know each other in public, but then I looked behind them and saw more bland beige walls. SA headquarters. I should have known I wasn’t in a typical hospital, not with zombie bites that would be way difficult to explain to your average doctor.
“She’s awake, I see,” Elder Thomas said. She was by far my favorite of the Elders, a sweet, grandmotherly type who also happened to be the
only
woman on the Arkansas council at the moment. Big mistake on the council’s part. They could really use more members with a softer touch. “Elder Crane, would you go fetch the nurse on duty? I’d like to get Megan checked out as soon as possible.”
“Of course.” Elder Crane looked irritated to be the one sent away, but since Elder Thomas was seventy years old and outranked him, he had to deal with it.
I, however, was very relieved. If I was going to get reamed, I’d rather hear the consequences of my stupidity from her than anyone else.
“How are you feeling, Megan?” she asked, sitting on my bed once Dad moved out of the way.
“Pretty good, considering.” I sniffed mightily and did my best to quit crying.
In addition to the aching in my chest, I had a pretty serious headache, and the bites on my hand and leg were sore, but all in all, I was doing okay. I wasn’t hooked up to an IV, so I assumed I hadn’t lost a lot of blood.
“You were very lucky,” she said, leveling me with her pale blue eyes. “But I’m sure you know that.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I nodded and did my best to maintain eye contact, though it hurt to see how disappointed Elder Thomas looked. “I’m really, really sorry. I just . . . wasn’t thinking.”
“Well, the good news is that you’re okay,” she said, smoothing the beige bedspread. Why was everything at SA headquarters beige? You’d think people privy to a secret paranormal world would be a little more creative. “The better news is that Barker was able to track down the person responsible for these attacks.”
So much for the “soft touch” thing. My mouth grew dry and my empty stomach cramped. They’d caught the psychopath. I could hardly believe it.
“Who was it?” I asked before I could control my mouth. Second-stage Settlers who had just caused big trouble didn’t go around asking Elders direct questions, but I had to hear her say the words.
Monica Parsons, get ready to pay for your wicked deeds.
“Bethany Phillips, a little girl from right here in town.”
What!
She tutted under her breath, obviously grieved by this discovery. “I never thought Carol would breed such a dark heart, especially in one so young.”