Mostly Dead (Barely Alive #3) (22 page)

He walked closer, holding his hand out to the orange wall.

The fire called him, like it had me right after it’d claimed Dominic.

I splayed my hands and sprinted as fast as I could to James’s side. Needles sizzled overhead. I grabbed James’s shirt and dug my heels into the ground to pull him out. It took more willpower than actual strength to get him a safe enough distance from the fire.
I snapped my fingers in his face. When that didn’t work, I slapped him – hard.

He blinked his eyes, once, twice, three times, focusing on me. He raised his hand to where I’d slapped him. “Paul?”

“Yeah, walk it off, man. You’re not allowed to go by the flames anymore until you’ve got this under control.” I pulled him into a hug. “The call is strong, isn’t it?” I didn’t feel it anymore, but I do remember.

James’s body tensed and I released him.
He had to know how much he meant to me. “Sorry, bro. I almost lost you. I’m just relieved.”

“
What’s Travis doing with those people?” He looked over my shoulder.

I spun and froze. Travis was surrounded by the five humans. He yelled something, but one shook his head and spat one word back. I
t sounded like liar.

Travis held up his hands, fear plastered his face into a chil
ling mask. I reached out. But too late. A man threw a Molotov cocktail at Travis’s feet. The sparks flew catching the liquid droplets and fumes on fire. One moment Travis was a dark silhouette, the next he glowed like a torch in a cave.

James and I stumbled forward. The damn zombies hadn’t been the ones to fear.

The humans were.

Travis didn’t fight the flames. I hadn’t seen one zombie do that, except Dominic. Travis watched them crawl up his body. He faced us, a sad smile on his face. He waved.

Then turned and walked into the forest, his hair and skin outlined in a purplish black aura.

Rage filled me bu
t quickly abated.

I yelled at the people running toward us. “I will release these zombies so fast on you, if you try anything like that again.”

They stopped no more than five feet from us, confusion on their dirt and soot stained faces.

James walked forward and grabbed two of the men by the arms. “Paul, I’d like to suggest these guys stay here and watch the people in the ditch.”

The taller of the two men scoffed, his eyes wide. “People? They’re not people. They’re zombies. We should light them up.”

James leaned in close to the man, his words low. In the quiet of the chaotic night, we all heard him. “I’m a zombie. Try and light me up.”

The man fell to his knees, his mouth open in disbelief.

An erratic pounding that grew to a thunderous clapping sound filled the air. Through the smoke a mass grouping of people ran toward us, coming to a stop beside the ditch. They, too, exclaimed over the zombies being held. Many demanded their deaths.

Hand pressed to my chest, I yelled over the group of people, now about thirty-five total. “I was just like them ten minutes ago. Look at me. I’m like you now. They’re people. They’re just sick.”

“There’s a cure?”

“You mean, we can fix this?”

“My neighbors… they’re in this group. Do you see them?”

“My aunt and uncle went with them earlier.”

“Can we look for more?”

Fear and disbelief turned to desperation for more to be saved.

Finding more wasn’t a bad idea. We’d need to arm the
people with the cure. I turned to James. “Let’s get up to the house and see if Connie has anything for us.”

“What do we tell her about Travis?” He looked toward the forest, his eyes reflecting the orange flames.

“Hey,” I waited until he looked at me. “We need to get you to the house. Once you get the cure, you’ll be easier to trust around fire.” I pushed past him. “Let me worry about Connie.”

~~~

On the lawn, I left the people who had followed. More had opted to stay behind and watch the zombies, but they didn’t have anything to worry about. Dominic had injected us all with the same saliva. We were all interconnected. The only difference between me and them was I wasn’t confused like they were. Controlling them was easier than controlling Brian and James had been. I didn’t have to be a zombie to control them either.

James ignored my mental attempts to control him.
He obviously had more mental stability than the others and couldn’t be controlled.

Whatever.

Mom and Grandma Jean waved from their posts by the buildings as they sprayed water wherever the hoses could reach.

C.J. rushed from the drive with another group of
people to help them.

Bursting through the front doors, I called out for Connie.
She would be left alone with Heather. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

The empty kitchen, dining room, and family room took less than seconds to search. I ran through the upstairs, pushing open each door, calling out for Heather. Connie.

Nobody answered.

People. Connie was constantly craving humans. She also wouldn’t test anything on herself.

From the window of my room, I yelled to James, “Hey, where’d you take those girls?”

“The basement, the door down is beside the kitchen.” He must have seen something in my face, because he took off running in that direction.

I pounded across the floor and down the stairs, out the back door of the kitchen. James stopped in his headlong flight before running into me. I held up a finger to my mouth. “Sh.”

At the door, James knocked
. I didn’t know what else to do either.

“Come in.” Connie’s voice lacked emotion. I almost expected her to follow with a laugh you’d see in a horror movie. If we walked through the door, would her head spin or her eyes roll back in her head?

We pushed the door open. All my muscles tensed, even ones I didn’t know I had, all ready to spring and cause major damage. Heather and the two other girls had been tied together from a hook on the wall. Heather chewed her nail in a sitting position on the cold dirt floor and the other two had been knocked out.

Connie cackled. “Nice, Paul. You really are human, again. And about to attack me. I’m still stronger than you.” She glanced between me and my brother. “James…” She clucked her tongue. “Do you think Paul is going to share this with you? He’s not.” She walked toward Heather, a syringe in her hand.

I’d had enough. “Connie, stop. You can see I’m human. Ask Heather to spit in a cup for you and then drink it. Gross, right? But you can be human again.”

“And what? Thanks to you, things will never be the same between me and Travis again. I can’t get a divorce or I lose
everything.” She hung her head, tapping the syringe on her finger. “I think we could’ve worked things out. I’d met him when I was younger, you know?” She sniffed. “I’m so much smarter than he is, but he seemed to really try and he didn’t really care that I was. He didn’t have this belief that women should be in the kitchen or the bedroom.”

She moved closer to Heather but snarled at me. “But you ruined him. He won’t talk to me. Won’t even look at me.” Connie knelt beside Heather. “So, I’m going to take what I want from her and then inject her with an alternate virus. She can’t be immune to
one that targets the markers in a different part of the brain, right?”

I couldn’t move. Why the hell would Connie do this? Because of a failed marriage? It didn’t add up.

“Connie, what’s really going on? When did you have time to create an alternate virus?” James beat me to the punch. He watched the girls on the floor. I never thought James would give in and crush on a girl. He seemed too individualistic for that.

“I didn’t. This was an alternate that I worked on with Dominic – before this
entire fiasco.” She flicked Heather with a finger. “Open your mouth, little girl. Lift your tongue.” Heather obliged and Connie inserted the tip of the needle under the tongue.

Heather whimpered.

Connie bit out. “Shut up. This is the least of your worries.” She pulled out the syringe and tapped the side to get the bubbles out of the contents. “If Dominic had had his way, Heather, I would’ve taken you down to his zombie holding area and let them have their way with you. You know, he was such a wimp – his mother scared the hell out of him.” She laughed.

Heather covered her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. Physical pain, not emotional sadness. That pissed me off.

“Connie, any theories why the cure is in Heather’s saliva and not her blood?” I didn’t have Travis to figure out the cure. And if I had anything to say about it, Connie would be unable to continue any kind of research. “How do you think we can disperse the cure?”

Her malice disappeared as she warmed to her topic. “It’s really beautiful in its simplicity. Saliva is basically a saline suspension that carries so many other things. I think Heather’s bacteria – her natural flora – is part of the cure.
But rather than mess with anything artificial, slamming a dropper of her saliva into the zombies’ mouths would be sufficient. Unless you want them all to have a go at her like you did.”

She laughed, the sound like metal scraping on cast iron.

For just a second, I could see her as she must have been, ignored by Travis, bored with her own intelligence, and entranced by the charm and promises Dominic sweat from his pores. That had been me. I didn’t have sex with Dominic – my hell – but I’d been taken in by him and had joined up with his cult.

It wasn’t my fault he’d turned out to be a psychopat
h with plans to rule the world.

And it wasn’t Connie’s either.
Something had unscrewed in Connie’s head. She’d lost it, like I’d been so close to doing for the last few weeks.

I tried to soften the blow, but Connie held Heather captive. Unforgivable in my book. “Connie, Travis didn’t make it.”

She lowered the vial she’d been depositing Heather’s saliva sample in. “What do you mean? Didn’t make it?”

“He’s dead. I’m sorry.” I held my stance. She wouldn’t intimidate me. I’d been to hell and back and nothing was going to take away my new chance at life or the girl I planned on kissing again. And again.

Very carefully, almost too carefully, she lowered the vial and placed it on a shelf Grandma Jean stored jarred goods on. She faced me, her features contorted with pain and anger.

A vent in the ceiling leaked smoke into the room. The house must have caught on fire, despite Grandma Jean’s and my mom’s attempts to keep it safe.

Connie leapt at me, the newly emptied syringe in her hand. I fell back, catching the weight of her body with my feet. I pushed up, using my stomach muscles, and shoved her across the room. Her head crunched on the concrete wall and she slid to the floor, not out, but dazed.

By the hook, James un
tied the girls. Grabbing the youngest first, he darted up the stairs and out the door.

I palmed the vial on the shelf and ran to Heather. Kneeling beside her, I tilted her chin up. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. Early bruising on the side of her face and around her neck filled me with disgust. I pulled her into my arms and held her. “We need to get out of here. The house is on fire. Can you walk?”

Heather stood and wiped at the tear tracks on her face. Her eyes widened and she reached out.

A solid thud sounded from inside my head. I fell to the floor while black and white zig-zags filled my vision.

Everything went black.

Pounding on the door brought me from the cool blackness into the overly warm basement. I blinked and looked around, taking in the shelves of jarred food and two girls standing together in the corner. I couldn’t place the other one, but the curly haired one shouted my name and told me to get up.

I shook my head. Moisture dripped down my neck. I’d been left lying on my side on the floor. Stupid woman hadn
’t tied me up. I tried to sit, but nausea pinned me down. Okay, maybe she wasn’t that stupid.

Looking up, my vision was hazy but looking down it cleared up.

The two girls coughed.

Ah, smoke. Okay, things came together. I’d been hit hard.

Connie! That bitch
. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to all fours. Then using the wall I stood.

“Paul! You’re bleeding.” Heather tugged on her restraints but couldn’t get closer to me.

James called to me from the other side of the door. The panel had been locked. “Paul! Let me in. The house is on fire. Come on.”

One foot in front of the other, I made myself walk to the door. I unlocked the deadbolt – Connie must have had a key
– and swung the thick door open.

My brother raced past me
and grabbed the girl’s arm. “Rachel. Oh, my gosh, are you okay?”

Rachel. I’m about to bleed to death and I learn her name.

“James, grab Heather, too. I can barely walk.” Talking split my head more.

He yanked the rope from the hook where Connie had replaced it and took each girl by the arm. “Let’s go. Paul, you coming?”