Love & the Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1, Zombie Apocalypse Trilogy) (11 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Adam jumped to his feet.  He blinked, trying to remember where the hell he was, and why he was napping on the area rug in the middle of the fire station’s television room.  After a few seconds, every horrible memory flooded back.  The barbecue.  His mother.  Joey.  Tony at the Wooden Barrel.  Selena.  Vivienne. 
Zombies.
 

Selena crawled
backward on the floor like a crab. Adam followed Selena’s line of vision, but he already knew what had frightened her.

Vivienne
rose from the couch like a puppet being pulled by strings. Vivienne’s skin was a nasty grayish color and her eyes had changed from light green to frosty blue.

Selena started hyperventilating
. 

Vivienne’s
jaw unhinged like a snake ready to devour its prey.  Saliva dripped from her mouth.  She raised her hands, her fingers curling into talons.  The others were silent behind him.  Nicky was lowered into a half crouch – his hair matted to his head from sleep.  Cage positioned himself in front of Rachel.

“Nicky,
please grab Selena.” Adam inched forward, closing in on the lead pipe resting against the couch

Vivienne snarled
.

“Take this
, Adam.” Cage handed him Rachel’s baseball bat.

“No
!”  Selena reached for the bat, but Nicky held her back.  “Adam, please don’t.”

“Selena,” Cage said
.  “That’s not your sister anymore.  It’s not Vivienne.”

“No,” Selena struggled against Nicky.

Vivienne
lumbered toward them. 

“Please
don’t bash her head in,” Selena pleaded.  “Please.  I can’t.  Oh God.  Please.  Adam, please, at least… at least use the gun.”

Adam didn’t want to fi
re the gun.  The sound would attract nearby zombies, but he understood Selena’s pain. Only yesterday he had watched his mother and best friend get eaten alive.  Adam knew pain all too well and he wasn’t going to cause Selena any more than necessary.

Cage handed
him the gun.  The metal felt cool in his hands.  “Someone take Selena to the other room, please.”

Vivienne
raked her hands across the air. Her jaws snapped open and close.  “Get Selena out of here!” Adam shouted. 

The others spra
ng into action.  Adam backed up, bumping into a chair.  Vivienne was only a few feet away.  “Selena’s in the other room,” Cage said quietly. 

“I’m sorry, Vivienne.” 
Adam squeezed the trigger and watched, as if in slow motion, the bullet race from the barrel of the gun and sink into Vivienne’s forehead.  She crumbled to the floor.  Selena’s cry from the other room was louder than the gunfire. 

Adam exhaled.  The e
arly morning sunlight streamed in from the window.  The sun’s weak rays fell over Vivienne’s body.  Adam snatched a blanket from the couch and covered her. He felt hollow inside.  What had he done?
You shot your girlfriend’s sister in the head, you idiot. 

Nicky’s
hand rested on his shoulder.   “You had to, dude.  Don’t feel bad.  She understands.”

“Where is she?”  Adam’s head was pounding. 

“In the kitchen with Rachel.”

“We need to pack up and go.”

Nicky’s eyebrows rose.  “Leave?  Already?  Can’t we sleep some more?”

Cage
walked over to them.  He slung a backpack over his shoulder.  “Every zombie within a three mile radius heard that gunshot.”

Adam nodd
ed.  “We can’t stay now.  Especially with Vivienne’s body here.”

“I’
ll pack supplies,” Cage said.

A
dam was left alone with the gun in his hand and a body at his feet.  He didn’t want to face Selena.  Would she hate him?  What could he have done differently?  He slipped the gun into his waistband and went to face the music.

The girls were
alone in the kitchen.  Selena’s head was buried in Rachel’s shoulder.  Her dark hair in contrast to Rachel’s light blonde. Adam’s stomach flopped.  How would she ever forgive him?

Rachel motioned him forward. 

Selena turned.  Her eyes were red and puffy.  Mascara was smudged over her cheeks, but she looked beautiful.  Adam tentatively raised his arms and she stumbled into them, burying her face in his chest. 

Rachel tiptoed out of the kitchen. 

“I’m so sorry.”  Adam breathed in the sweet smell of her hair. 

She shook her head.  “
It’s not your fault.  She wouldn’t have wanted to walk around as one of those things.”

Adam
ran his thumbs over her wet cheekbones. 

“I used to be
a stripper,” Selena blurted out.  “I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t get another job and I had no money.  It was stupid.  I’m sorry.  Please don’t hate me.”  Fresh tears fell from her eyes.

Adam
lowered his mouth to hers.  Selena seemed surprised, but her lips relaxed and moved with his.  Their kisses started soft and sweet, but then their lips moved with more urgency.  She pressed the length of her body against his and he thought his heart would jump out of his chest.  Dying from a heart attack from this beauty would be the way to go, especially during the zombie apocalypse.   

Someone coughed
.  “Sorry, to…uh, interrupt,” Nicky said. 

“There
better be a good reason, because you just interrupted one of the best kisses of my life.” Adam kept his hands around Selena’s waist. 

“Yeah, it looked pretty hot from over here,” Nicky said.

“Nicky.” Selena hid her face. 

“Sorry
to interrupt,” Nicky said again.  “But, yes, there’s a good reason.”

“Well?”  Adam said.  “What is it?”

“Oh, there are like ten zombies down the street.  I think they heard the gunshot.  They’re headed for the fire station.”

Chapter Fifteen

Cage helped the others load up the truck.  The zombies headed toward the general direction of the fire station, but they were still half a mile away.  Apparently, the creatures heard the gunfire, but they weren’t smart enough to know exactly where it came from.  Cage rode in back with Nicky and the girls were up front with Adam.  Selena didn’t have time to say goodbye to Vivienne, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The
zombies caught wind of them once they were outside the fire station.  A handful chased after them, but as soon as they drove off in Adam’s truck, they lost the zombies without any problem. 

P
lumes of smoke rose high over the tree line.  They weren’t far from his house and a knot was forming in Cage’s stomach.  His neighborhood was on fire.  Not every house, but enough homes that the smoke above the quiet residential street blocked out the sun.  Cage couldn’t breathe and it wasn’t because of the smoke. 

He po
ked his head into the truck cab to give Adam directions to his house.  The street was littered with garbage and overturned trash cans.  A four-car collision burned in the middle of the street where Cage had ridden his bike when he was a child.  Flames roared from the McCloud house and the Yearling house.  Straggling zombies roamed over the lawns.  His neighborhood was in complete chaos.

Cage closed his ey
es.  He had to ready himself for the worse case scenario. 

Adam turned at
the stop sign.  Cage saw his house at the end of the street.  It wasn’t burning, thank goodness.  In fact, it looked abandoned.  His parents’ cars weren’t in the driveway, but that didn’t mean anything, because they were probably in the garage. All of the curtains were drawn tight over the windows. 

The truck pulled in
over the curb and grass because the mailbox was knocked over at the base of the driveway.  Cage hopped out of the truck before it stopped.  He ran to the front door and twisted the handle. 

Locked. 

He’d lost his keys when they were carjacked.  “We have to go around back.”  Cage didn’t wait for the others.  He jogged around the house. 

All of
the curtains were drawn over the windows in the back, too.  Cage reached the patio and retrieved the spare key from under the flowerpot.  A snarl sounded behind him, but before Cage could turn around, Nicky slayed the zombie with an axe that he’d taken from the fire station.  Cage didn’t check to see if the zombie was one of his neighbors.  It was all too overwhelming to process.

The glass inset on the top of the
door was boarded with wood from the kitchen cabinets.   Something, probably a zombie, had broken the window.  Had they gotten inside?  Did his father board up the window in time?  Cage fumbled with the key and unlocked the door.

The lights were off
and all of the curtains were shut.  The sunlight behind him sprayed inside, creating a spotlight into the house.  Dust motes floated in the air.  Cage stood frozen as his mind slowly processed the destruction of his home.  The kitchen table and chairs were overturned.  Shards of broken dishes were scattered across the tile floor.

Cage step
ped inside.  Someone groped the wall and the kitchen flooded with light.  A reddish-brow spot stained the carpet that led to the living room. 

Adam and Nicky
fanned out with their weapons raised.  Rachel silently moved beside him and Selena closed the door, killing the natural light. 

Cage couldn’t stop staring at the stain. 
Whose blood was that?  His mother’s?  His father’s?  He willed his legs to move.  He staggered forward.  Adam and Nicky walked ahead of him, respectfully stepping over the stain. 

Nicky reacted first.  He was angled toward the
hallway that led to his parents’ master bedroom.  Nicky went rigid.  He stepped back and bumped into the wall.

Cage knew. 

Adam moved to Nicky’s side and raised his gun.  He glanced over at Cage, too, waiting for some type of instruction.  Some type of go ahead.  Rachel froze where the tile met the carpet.  She sucked in her breath. 

Ca
ge heard the deep guttural growl before he saw them.  They moved slowly – probably because of their age.  They were side-by-side wearing the same clothes he’d seen them in yesterday morning before he left for football practice.

His mother’s
neck was torn out.  Blood stained the collar of her yellow blouse.  Her hair was matted against her face and she had those horrible icy blue eyes.  The room tilted, but Cage forced himself to look at his father. 

His
dad’s arms were raised with his fingers curled at Adam and Nicky.  His mouth opened in a horrible primal snarl.  His shirt and tie were soaked in blood and bite marks covered his neck. 

Nicky backed up against the wall
.  “Um, we have a situation.” 

Cage rubbed his eyes.  The room was spinning.
  How could this be happening?  His stomach churned. 

Nicky pointed the
gun at Cage’s father. 

“No!  Don’t shoot them!” Rachel said.

“What do you want me to do?” Nicky glanced at Rachel. “I’m not giving myself up for a snack.”

Blackness edged into Cage’s vision, like the fading of a
n old movie.  Someone led him to a kitchen chair. A loud ringing pierced his eardrums. 

“Uh, they’re getting
too close,” Nicky said. 

Nicky and Adam
backed into the kitchen.

“Don’t shoot them!  Herd
them into that room,” Rachel said. 

Cage heard
the commotion, but he couldn’t focus.  His stomach was in his throat and he was about to hurl.  He leaned forward in the chair and tried to concentrate on the tile design and not his parents’ awful moans. 

V
isions of his parents being attacked by zombies filled his head.  Cage wasn’t there when they needed him.  His stomach lurched and water spewed out of his mouth. 

Cage
heard the others, but he kept his eyes on the tile.  On the stupid floral design that his mother picked out last year - the one he and his dad thought was too girly for the kitchen.  Why had he told his mother that he didn’t like the tile?  Who cared what it looked like?  Oh God, this wasn’t happening. 

Someone kneeled beside him.  Rachel.  He co
uld sense her without seeing her.  He forced his eyes to follow the tile design. 

“I’m so sorry,”
Rachel whispered in his ear.  “I’m sorry, Cage.”

“W
e can’t leave them in that room,” Selena said. 

“Whatever Cage
wants to do,” Adam said.  “We can give him some time.”

“Do you think there’
s food in the kitchen?” Nicky asked.  “What?  I’m starving.  I haven’t eaten in like a day.”

Rachel rubbed
soothing circles over Cage’s back.  “Selena, can you bring me a glass of water, please?  I think he needs something to drink.”

A door
creaked.  Cage felt everyone swing into action, but he didn’t care.  There could be nothing worse than seeing his parents like that.  Commotion filled the room and then he heard Adam.  “Wait!  She’s not a zombie!”

“Of course I’m not a zombie,
you idiot,” a high-pitched voice squeaked.

The sound was
like nails on a chalkboard.  Cage lifted his eyes from the tile.  Her heeled sandals were only steps from the bloodstains on the carpet.  Adam and Nicky lowered their weapons.  They glanced at each other, clearly confused.  Rachel stood beside Cage, the baseball bat clutched tightly in her hands. 

Lindsay’s
eyes roamed over the scene until they landed squarely on Cage. 

“I
f you’re not a zombie, then who are you?”  Selena placed her hands on her hips.

“I’m
Cage’s girlfriend.”