Mostly Dead (Barely Alive #3) (2 page)

His grunt could have been a laugh or a cough, either way he’d better
be careful. We were talking about my brother, after all. “I couldn’t understand some of what he said. The signal wasn’t solid.”

Dominic’s lights faded behind us. The radio squawked and his voice filled the cab. “Trying to escape me, Paul?” Was that fear in his vo
ice? I had to be mistaken. The asshole I knew didn’t understand fear, at least as it applied to him. He had a serious control issue.

Just in case, I let him sweat it out for a minute. For good measure, I pushed the truck for more speed.

Palming the CB radio’s mouth piece, I pressed the talk button. “I was going to ask if you changed your mind. Kind of slowing up back there, huh?” Our truck shuddered at ninety. I dropped back to eighty-five after tossing a glance at Brian. I grimaced. That’d be my luck, getting stranded in Dominic’s path on our way to save Heather and my brother.

I waited
for Dominic’s answer. How in the hell was I going to pull this off? Goals included rescuing Heather and James, maybe saving the girls, and getting away from Dominic, all while avoiding rogue zombies eating their way through the countryside. Oh, and for good measure, I should ditch the zombie pops in the box. Success required a better vehicle, or at least one that didn’t freeze the passengers.

If I could switch Dominic trucks we could be on our way. If I could switch Dominic and somehow give him a damaged truck, it would buy some very valuable time in our favor. I gnawed on my lip. I hadn’t eaten in about two hours. The hunger cre
pt up on me, would be there before I knew it. But I could hold off until we reached Sandpoint. I had to. Hmmm. Could zombies have eating disorders?

“You know, that’s not a bad idea.” Brian turned to me, a serious slant to his mouth. He’d been in my head again. “No, actually, I don’t go into y
our head. You dump your thoughts out there like garbage and I can’t help hearing them. And please stop picturing Heather in a shower stall with a bunch of other girls. She’s supposed to be my sister.”

Oh, right. Sick.
“Should I focus on keeping you out or something? I’ve never done this.” Screaming in his head wasn’t my intention.

Brian scrunched up his face, his lips screwed into a smirk. “And I have?”

“Enough. I’ll work on it.” I stared into the night, unable to register any present details. “You were going to say something wasn’t a bad idea?”

“Switching Dominic trucks and giving him a gimped out one.” He tapped the dash. “Heather wouldn’t stop talking about you in the kitchen at her grandma’s and your mom mentioned something about you being a grease monkey. Said you know about cars and stuff. Can you disable the truck?”

Heather talked about me? A fierce glow warmed my stony heart. Knowing that she cared about me was one thing. Hearing about her affection from someone else hit me between the ribs. Made her feelings real.

S
lowly the glow faded. There was no cure. She was doomed, if she liked the walking dead. I was the walking dead. The thought sobered me. I focused on Brian’s question. Smothering the possibilities of me and Heather would make surviving the next few days much easier.

The truck. “Disabled how bad?”

“Enough to keep him from following us too close.” And as if on cue, the pinpoints of Dominic’s headlights reappeared in my side mirror.

I
tapped the steering wheel. “I’d need a few minutes under the hood. There isn’t a lot I can do with such a short amount of time.” We needed Dominic’s truck, too. “It’s not like he’s going to just roll over and give us his truck, you know?” I lifted the radio piece to my mouth and pretended to push the button. “Dominic, Paul here, I’d like to give you a crapped out truck and take yours. What do you say, ole buddy?”

Brian rolled his eyes.

I lowered the mouthpiece. “Precisely. He’s never going to give us his vehicle.” Why would he want my truck? I didn’t want the damn thing.

In unison, Brian and I spoke. “
The cargo.” Our grins matched.

Excited, I pressed the button for real and spoke as calmly as possible. “Dominic, there’s a rest stop coming up. I
’d be interested in trading trucks.”

He took his time answering. I didn’t blame him. He had to be asking himself what I wanted with his truck, besides the girls. Then his next thing would be wondering how he could feed all those frozen boys without the girls in the back of his truck
. Then, knowing Dominic, he’d try to figure out a way to keep the girls and ditch the boys. But last and, of course, the most important, he’d work on a way to screw me over and, again, try to get me to rejoin with him. The last would never happen, but I was getting used to the flattery of his attempts.

I curled my lips. I’d give anything to be in his head right then.

He waited longer. Exit one-hundred-and-twenty-seven passed. Answer already.

At exit one-hundred-and-twenty-eight
my headlights rebounded off a set of eyes, then another. The gleam in the dark didn’t match a deer’s eye shape. The slouch of shoulders as the large male crouched over something he tore into gave away his species. Red blood coated his chin and dripped down onto a flannel shirt. His partner evaded the glare of my lights. I zoomed by, not slowing.

Brian didn’t react, but I know he saw. The attitude in the truck had changed, filled the air with resolution.

Dominic’s lights glowed brighter in my mirror. Small text on the glass indicated items in mirror were closer than they appeared. I had to hurry to exit one-hundred-and-thirty-three. I pressed the gas and inched closer to ninety without actually touching it. Skirting the limits of the large truck emboldened me. I pressed talk again. “I’ll trade you the boys for the girls.”

His laughter shrieked into the truck before fading. “Oh, Paul, that was funny. What are you going to do with them? You don’t eat humans and I
sincerely doubt your attraction to girls.” He chuckled, the sound grating on the glass. “Please, tell me what you plan on doing with them.”

I clenched my jaw.
Calm down.
He didn’t know he was getting to me.
Don’t give it away.
I breathed in and out, the fire dimming inside me as I struggled to tamp it down. Once I gained control of my anger, I forced a smile into my voice. “I’m going to let them go. Do you want me to light this truck on fire? I can
run
back to Sandpoint. Not that I’d have to. You’d be out an army and coming all by yourself. Nothing for us to be afraid of, you know?” He didn’t know the cure was fake. He didn’t know Heather was up ahead, either. “Before dinner tomorrow I could have the cure and be back to normal in no time.”

“Are we just going to switch trucks, then? How do I know you did
n’t destroy my boys?” Suspicions targeted the wrong way.

“I haven’t had time, have I?” Nimrod. Jeesh.
But at least his attention was on the boys. “They’re intact, Dominic. We can switch at the next exit.”

I hung up the small hand piece. He’d take some time. Dominic didn’t like being given the options. He preferred delivering ultimatums and scaring the crap out of people. Power hadn’t completely shifted, but at the same time, it had. I didn’t need the girls to complete my goals. It’d be nice to help them out, make me feel less animalistic. But my survival and Heather’s didn’t depend on whether they made it or not. If Dominic didn’t realize that, more power to me.

We rounded a curve in the road, the box swaying with the momentum. I hung on to the wheel, pulling tight against the speed and inertia sucking us toward the guardrail. “You need to find Heather and James when we get there. Do it as fast as you can and then hide them by the exit of the rest stop. You’ll have to stay with them, in case…” I left the possibility that they might meet up with the uncontrolled zombies unspoken.

“How long do you need to work on the truck?” Brian had
closed his eyes. Boy would probably piss himself on a motorcycle with me. He all but whimpered, “Are you going to yank out the spark plugs?”

Spark plugs? Only someone who
wanted to sound like they knew what they were talking about would suggest spark plugs. “You don’t just
yank
out spark plugs. But no, I’m going after something a little less obvious and much faster.”

“Can you try calling James or Heather and warning them?” The steering wheel shook in my hands. I might not have to incapacitate the truck at the rest stop. The rate we were going, the truck might
break apart before then.

Brian punched in the numbers but a loud beep rejected the connection. He looked close at the screen. “There’s no reception.”

“Huh? Are we that far from any towns?” I pursed my lips. Dominic’s lights drew closer. If I was pushing the speed limit close to ninety and he was gaining on me, then that meant his truck was capable of going much faster than the measly eighty-nine I claimed.

“No. I’m not sure. We had reception here on the way down.” Brian messed with the phone.

“Not that surprising. If there is anyone still human out there, they’re most likely worried more about keeping their flesh than about what kind of reception people have.” I couldn’t think of a single way people would be able to hide from the flesh eaters. There was a distinct smell associated with the uninfected – like copper and earth. Change the copper to a rusty smell and a musky odor to overtake the earthiness and you had the smell of the infected. Rotten eggs and milk stench followed the dead ones.

Hmm. My own stench had to be similar to an expensive cologne. I wouldn’t accept anything less.

Brian snorted.

“I must not be doing too well focusing my mind, huh? Sorry.” But I really wasn’t sorry. Honestly, I didn’t care.

“You’ll care when you’re alone with Heather and you don’t want me to hear everything you want to tell her but don’t have the balls to say.” Brian watched out the window. What he should have been watching was my fist. I let it fly across the seat and plant firmly in the ball of his bicep. He gripped his shoulder and moaned. “Dammit. You gave me a dead arm.”

A dead arm? The laugh burst from my mouth like a bullet. I couldn’t contain it, if I wanted to. “Pun intended?”

He thought about his word choice and laughed, too.

I didn’t like him, but I wasn’t thinking about shoving his ass out the door, either.

Heather. We’d be seeing her soon. I swallowed. I couldn’t wait to see her. And yet… “Hey, Brian? Can I ask you for a favor?”

He waited for me to go on.

“I… I don’t want Heather to know I ate those people, you know? At least not yet. I’m going to tell her, I just don’t want to right away. She’s… well, she’s going to be disappointed in me and I’d rather have a few more hours without that, you know?” I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t want to see the humor or derision on his face that I know was on mine.

Dominic’s voice broke through the radio silence.
“I’ll take that deal, Paul. I get to keep one girl, though. I have urges that need to be fed. Meet you at the rest stop. Turn off the truck. I want the boys to start thawing.”

Perfect. T
he exit loomed close. We passed one-hundred-and-thirty-two, an exit minus the zombies. The sign boasted the class of one tavern-and-more stop. People would be nearby. Real flesh and blood people. Where there were people, there would be zombies.

Heather
wasn’t far from there.

And Brian never answered me. He’d do what I told him to do, but would he try to get around it?

I would.

A green reflective sign marked exit one-hundred-and-thirty-three. The white numbers taunt
ed me as Dominic’s lights barreled down behind us.

I
took my foot off the gas and let the engine slow us down.

We careened into the parking lot, avoiding two semi-trucks parked at angles to each other and an abandone
d SUV that was most likely my old one. I couldn’t look at Brian. For some reason, I felt like I asked him for a favor, when in fact I was saving his life. We only had moments, so I rushed my directions. “When you get out, run. I’m only going to have a second to do this. If I get it wrong and he suspects something, don’t wait for me. Get Heather and James out of here. I’ll pick you up when I’m out of his sight.”

The drivers of the semi-trucks could
be eaten, dead, or undead. Honestly, I didn’t give a damn which. “Keep your eyes open.” I pointed at the open doors on the two large trucks. Something had gotten there before us.

If James was in the area, he’d be able to hear me, or feel me, or whatever the hell it was. I focused on James and thought,
James, we’re here. Stay hidden. Brian is coming to you. I’m going to switch trucks with Dominic.
No way would Heather survive. Someone had to watch for animals like us.

James’s
answer screeched through my skull. I jerked back like he stood in front of me and yelled with a bullhorn.
Brian is right. You need to work on that. I’ve heard you for a while now. Quit being a pervert about Heather and get us that truck
. He’d gotten in my head – like Brian – and I hadn’t had the control to keep him out.