Mostly Dead (Barely Alive #3) (21 page)

F
lames whispered behind us. I peaked at the points and curves of the heat. Oranges and reds competed with yellows and whites and the shadows of the trees. My color sight had returned. But…

Heather covered her swollen lips and gasped. “Paul, you’re…” She reached out and ran her fingertips down my jaw. It didn’t hurt. “The gray is gone.”

I hadn’t eaten anything. “Not possible.” I held out my arms and watched the peach racing to my fingertips. Lifting my shirt, I couldn’t believe the thickness of the lines defining my six-pack. My muscles returned like a magician held a wand over me. Heather’s fingers hovered over my skin, lingering on the skin above my navel.

Yet, while I returned to my normal size, I felt faint. “I think I need something to eat. I’m starving.” And thirsty. So thirsty.

She nodded, her brows scrunched together. “Uh… ok. What’s going on?”

I shrugged and grabbed her hand, pulling her with me to the hose in my mom’s hand. “Mom, sorry. Can I?”

Licking the green plastic would’ve been too much – not that I wasn’t tempted. I pulled the spray nozzle to my mouth and for the first time in days, even weeks, I tasted water. Cold and clear and wet. I drank and drank.

When I lifted my head from the sparkling spray, I found James, Travis, and Connie standing as close as they could without touching me.
When had he gotten back? James licked his lips. “What are you doing, Paul?”

I took in the fullest breath I could and delighted in my body. I wiped my mouth. “I have no idea what’s going on, but this tastes so good. I can taste, James. I can taste!” But could I taste everything? I bounded up the steps to the kitchen and shoved the first thing I could open into my mouth. And sweet heaven, it was a Twinkie from the box Heather had stolen from the gas station. I shoved another one in my mouth.
Oh, my hell.

There was no dust flavor. None.

We didn’t have time to explore my condition further. “I don’t know what’s going on, you guys, but we still have zombies attacking the last trenches. We need to help those people.” I grabbed one more Twinkie – dang things were good – and joined the group outside the door. Mom and Grandma Jean continued with the hoses. They wouldn’t be as useful in the ditches.

In fact, I had plans for each of them. “I’m going to run down to the ditches and help. Connie, Travis? Something happened to me. I should be dead, but I’m clearly not. I can even eat… food. I don’t even want to bite Heather.” And the truth shocked me. I leaned close to her and sniffed, but her scent only boiled my blood in normal, healthy albeit slightly dirty ways and not in a buffet-dinner style.
I backed away from her slowly, but only as far as I needed to see everyone else. “I don’t want to bite her or eat her.”

I turned to James and Travis. “Can you hear my thoughts?” I tried to keep my mind open.

They shook their heads, confused.

Studying Heather, I tried to figure out the variable – the one thing that had changed for me that hadn’t changed for them. “Okay, Dominic died but that should have been the catalyst for you guys, too. I… uh… the only thing is your kiss, Heather. That’s the only thing that’s different. That I can think of.”

Her cheeks flushed. I wanted to kiss her again. And again. And, okay, again. She crossed her arms. “We’ve kissed before, Paul.”

“Uh, not like that. We actually shared spit on that one.” I didn’t mean to sound blasé about it, but somehow that kiss had changed me. I wasn’t dying anymore, at least as far as I could tell.
And I didn’t want anyone to know how deeply it’d affected me on an emotional level. It seemed focusing on the physical changes would take the weight off the more sensitive side of it.

“You ingested her saliva?” Connie stepped forward and pressed her fingers to my wrist and tilted my chin toward the house lights.
Pinched at the corners, Connie’s eyes had a new look I hadn’t noticed before. She pulled down my eyelids and looked in my mouth.

“That’s not annoying at all.” I arched my eyebrow. “I must have. Didn’t you test her saliva?”

Heather clicked her tongue. “Could we not make it so, I don’t know, gross sounding? Jeesh.”

“Why would I test her saliva? I checked her blood.” Connie pushed on the flesh of my forearm, watching the capillary refill when she removed her fingers and the white spots filled back in.

“You need to eat or something?” Not too sharp in the moment was she? “Dominic’s saliva started this. We change each other with saliva. Why wouldn’t you consider the possibility that her immunity could be in her saliva?”

I patted James’s back. “Look, Connie and Travis take Heather inside and test her saliva. James, stay here with Mom and Grandma Jean – by the way, why are you back? I thought you’d left with that chick?”

“I took them inside, down into the basement.” He knocked into me. Someone screamed in the dark. We looked into the unburned section of the trees. He nodded. “Let’s go.”

Travis stepped forward. “If it’s all the same to you guys, I’d feel better helping out down there. Connie can handle this.” He didn’t address her, but
moved to the side of the group, waiting to follow us.

Heather and I stared at each other, me half-turned to the woods. Could it be possible I didn’t need to worry about dying? Or was it just some cruel tease and I’d be dead by morning?

Heather had done something to me with that kiss. She’d turned my world upside down in more ways than one. I wish I could linger and discover more, but… I winked.

She blushed.

… I’d be back.

Travis followed behind,
James in the middle, and I led down the trail Heather and I had taken before. I’d rather look at her butt in front of me than the flames eating one side of the forest and darkness on the other.

Over my shoulder, I asked James, “Hey, do I smell like a human? I don’t understand what’s happening.”

James walked up close behind me and sniffed my neck. I swatted the air. “Seriously, that was disgusting. Don’t do crap like that. Jeesh.”

He laughed. My possible cure was a potential cure for him as well. I’d be giddy, too. He shoved my shoulder. “Well, how else do I tell what you smell like, if I don’t smell you?”

“And?” Come on.

“You smell so human, I could eat you right here.” He added a growl.

Groaning cut off our conversation. Were the zombies so close? If I smelled human, then I’d be able to distract the zombies and fight them in my own way. Whatever way that was.

We came upon the ditch almost by accident. The empty hole seemed to jump out at me. I fell in, landing beside a severe
d arm – that I didn’t want to eat. “Where’d they go?”

Travis pointed over my head from t
he edge of the trench. “Over there.”

I turned on the dirt floor and peeked at the war scene. Zombies fought humans, hand to hand. Punches and kicks flew from the people as they dodged teeth and clawing hands.
Nothing deterred the zombies.

“We can round them into the fire. See, how their backs are to the flames? They need to see the fire to want to go in.” I pointed. “If we can get their attention, get them to turn, then we shouldn’t have any problems.”

Travis moved in front of me, ready to do something. Anything. He bounced on the balls of his feet.

“James, go around to the opposite side, take these and start throwing them. Just for a distraction, alright? Don’t hit the humans.” I
handed him some abandoned cocktails. He still had lighters in his pocket. I watched him slink off before crawling up beside Travis. “What’s wrong, man?”

“How’d you know?” He blew air out of his nose while he grimaced.

“You volunteered to come down here, instead of investigating my change. You didn’t even offer any theories or ideas.” I grabbed a few handmade bombs, too. I’d toss them to join James’s and increase the flammability. No reason to endanger more people. “Come on.”

Travis grabbed my arm. “Why are we trying to kill them? We might have a cure. They’re people, too.”

“They’re zombies.” Duh.

“You were, too, minutes ago. I am. So is James. You going to burn us, too?” His words stung.

I didn’t answer. He shook his head and loped off to help James. But he was right. I’d been fighting these things for the past week or so thinking that there was no cure. But there was… something, if not a cure, it was still something. And until I’d gotten it, I’d considered the situation equaled me against the world.

But I was different. There was hope. Until we had it figured out, I owed it to those people – both vaccinated and infected – to at least try to help them. Even if they tried eating me.

I jogged to catch up with Travis. My fast breathing indicated I was completely out of shape. “Okay, help me save as many as we can. I’m going to see if I can do what Dominic did.”

“What you did with Connie?” He eyed me, challenging me to accept something. I just wasn’t sure what.

“Yeah. I guess. I’ll see what I can do.” I put the cocktails at my feet and raised my arms above my head. “Hey! Over here!” A few looked my way, zombies and humans, but the interest wasn’t enough to make anyone stop and come to me. “Stop!”

Oh, my hell, stop? I had just yelled stop. What had Dominic done when I’d taken the shot? I remembered standing from the chair and reaching for something. And a piercing whistle had stopped me. I’d turned and watched and listened.

These were Dominic’s soldiers. He would’ve planted some kind of a control, like he did with us. Maybe a whistle. I lifted my fingers to my mouth and let loose the longest shrillest whistle I’d ever blown.

The zombies stopped, turned, and dropped everything to move toward me.

I didn’t feel safe the closer they got. Yes, a zombie in my personal bubble was not my idea of fun. About twenty feet from me, I held up my hand and firmly said, “Stop.”

They stopped. Kind of. Twitchy and slouchy, they inched closer to me and then back, swaying with some kind of internal rhythm. Some of them looked at me with eyes covered in film. They’d have to go into the flames.

James sprinted to my side. “What’s going on? Are we pushing them into the fire?”

“No. Let’s try to save as many as we can. If we have a cure, then great. If not, we can experim
ent on them. Maybe try to make them a bit more like you and I.” The ones with the cataract eyes didn’t seem to understand directions as well as those with the clear eyes. Two nearest me moved closer, sniffing the air and chewing their tongues.

I understood that kind of desperation. “Can you take these two? They’re dead already. Tell them there’s meat in the fire or something, get rid of them. I’ll single more out and have Travis bring them to you. Let me see what I can do with the other ones.”

He nodded and disappeared, returning in moments with the arm left in the ditch. James dangled the flesh in front of the two zombies that had to go and led them to the fire. I turned toward the group.

Only five humans remained and they hadn’t left the safety of the looming forest fire.
They watched us, as if expecting us to turn on them.

The more lucid undead hadn’t taken their eyes off me. I had to look like a talking cut of steak or something with the drool dripping from a couple mouths. I searched for calm in the chaos of my mind. There was no way Dominic had died. No way that I was cured. No way…

“You’re okay. You don’t have to eat anybody. Please think about your breathing, your heart beat. You were human once. We think we might be able to make you human again. But you have to stop. Calm down.” I couldn’t remember the control words or any tricks that Dominic had done to help control us. I’d only ever been hypnotized.

I closed my eyes.
Please, just stop. I wish they’d get in the damn ditch. Stay there until we get shots or something made.

Rustling filled the air around me as zombies pushed in closer. Then passed me. They climbed into the ditch and stood with their backs to each other as they bobbed and swayed.

Travis moved beside me. “How are you controlling them?”

My jaw had dropped. I rubbed my chin. “I have no idea. Do you think Dominic’s virus is still in me, or something? Maybe I’m not cured.” I crossed my arms. “I don’t know.”

“Huh. We can figure it out when we get back to the house. I’m going to help those people find their way back.” He smiled and tapped his temple. “Pretty freaky stuff.” Maybe I’d helped him with whatever he’d struggled with. I didn’t want to kill the people either. I just hadn’t considered them humans anymore. He leaned close, concern twisting his features. “I know Connie isn’t a bad person. She didn’t sleep with Dominic to hurt me. I get that. But she’s changing. Something’s off. Please, don’t be too mad at her. This virus has altered things in all of us.”

I know it’d changed parts of me I’d never see fixed again.

His words went unanswered. I couldn’t reply to something I didn’t quite understand. He sensed my uncertainty and nodded.

Travis approached the five humans left standing. His over-exaggerated gestures seemed off in the moment. He shouldn’t have to convince them we’re the good guys. James showed the dead zombies the fire. Without further prompting, they walked right into the flames. James, too, watched the flames flicker in seductive patterns.