Suspending Reality (11 page)

With a groan, I opened my eyes and took a deep breath, but the fumes from scorching metal burned my lungs. Nick’s big head was staring down at me, and I pushed him away and vomited into the grass. Glancing around, I noticed Nick must have gotten me out and dragged me away from the wreckage. Vines, flowers, and towering trees surrounded us. We must’ve crashed into a forest.

My brother squatted beside me. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice wavering.

The blazing sun beat down on my skin. Spots danced in my vision, and my head ached, especially when I rubbed the bump that had formed on the side of it where I’d clunked against the dashboard. I’d never felt so crappy in my entire life, yet I knew we had to get moving. I slowly sat up and rubbed my pounding head. “I’m fine…I think.”

“Fine is perfect, especially when we’re lucky to be alive.” He patted my back. “I tried the radio, but it’s dead.”

As my mind cleared, I suddenly remembered Val.
Wait…only both of us?
My jaw set as I peered around, frantically searching for her. “Where’s Val?” I blurted before I realized what I was saying.

Nick regarded me from under drawn brows. “Val? You must have hit your head pretty hard. We crashed in the middle of freaking nowhere. Don’t you remember anything?”

His words barely registered with me.
Of course he couldn’t check on Val or pull her from the wreckage. My idiot self didn’t even tell him she was onboard.
Ignoring my brother’s questioning look, I jumped to my feet and dashed for the pile of burning metal. I twisted my body through a jagged opening and climbed inside, ignoring the shark-like metal teeth tearing at my skin and clothes, then dove through the fire and smoke, searching desperately for Val. My hands dived right in, ignoring the searing pain that ran up my arms from when I’d tried to shield myself against the dashboard during the crash.

“Dean! What are you doing?” my brother yelled after me. “I told you the radio’s not working. It’s fried, man, just like your brain.”

Ignoring him, I kept looking. The black bag of vials rested upside down on the floor; I was relieved they were plastic and not glass, so they hadn’t shattered, and there was still hope for Val. Coughing and choking, I continued to stumble through the wreckage.

“I’m not gonna be the one to tell Mom and Dad that your foolish crap got you killed!” Nick shouted again. “Get out now!”

Smoked poured from everywhere, and the crackle of fire unnerved me. Even though I couldn’t see a thing, instinct commanded my hands to push through the debris. About halfway through, I thought I felt something warm under my touch.
Val! Crap, she’s not moving. Is she even breathing?
“Val! Val!” I choked out. I could hardly breathe myself from the pain and smoke, so I dragged her toward me. I scooped up her seemingly lifeless body and shuffled out as fast as I could. “Oh, Val, I promise everything’s going to be okay. Don’t you go dying on me.”

As I felt for a pulse on her neck, Nick ran up to us. “Who is that, and how’d she get aboard my bird?”

“Oh, thank God,” I said.

“What?”

“She has a strong pulse.”

Nick’s brows drew together, darkening his features. “Dean, what’s going on? Who is
she
?”

Shaking my head to signal him that it wasn’t the appropriate time for a million questions, I laid her down far from the wreckage, just in case it exploded like crashes always do in the movies. “I’ll explain later.”

Nick grabbed my shoulder. “No! You’ll explain now. Who the heck
is
this girl, and why’s she with us?”

I swung around and shot him a venomous look. “Chill out! Her name is Val, and she needs our help.”

We held each other’s gaze for what seemed like forever.

Then, as if something suddenly clicked, his shoulders finally dropped. “Val, huh? Well, is she okay?” He ran a hand across her forehead. “She’s burning up.” Then his gaze drifted to the bandage on her arm, and he peeked under it, gasping. “She’s been bitten.” Nick stared at me in disbelief. “What were you thinking? Sneaking a bitten chick out of the city? This is against protocol, Dean…not to mention you’re gonna get us all killed with your knight in shining armor crap!”

“Let me explain…” I hesitated, gathering my words, but he cut me off.

“I don’t want to hear it, and I want no part of this. You’re helping a zombie victim. What’s wrong with you? You know there’s no hope for her.” He punched the tree as sudden realization hit. “Wait a minute. You lied to me, didn’t you? You aren’t taking antibiotics to the doc. You were just using me to help you drag
her
out of there! Do you ever use your effing head?”

I looked away. I felt so guilty for landing us all in such a dire situation, such a mess. “No,” I whispered.

“No what? No you weren’t delivering antibiotics, or no you never use your thick head?”

“Both, I guess.” 

“I don’t believe it This was nothing more than an elaborate hoax.” He ran a hand through his dense hair, his eyes throwing daggers. “Tell me one thing. How long have you even known this girl?” he asked, sounding as if he dared me to tell him an answer he already knew and was disgusted by.

“Less than a day.”

His lips pressed into a grim line; he was definitely losing his cool. “I put my neck on the line for you,” he shouted. “I got us the special clearance to go, and for what? So you could pull a stunt like this, putting all our lives in danger for someone you don’t even know?”

“Yeah, but would you have helped me if I’d told you about Val?”

He said nothing and just continued to stare at me with rage and disbelief storming behind his eyes.

“Well, would you have helped me or not?”

He waved his hands wildly. “No! Never! Not like this. Not in a million years! But still, I have connections. I woulda tried to talk to the general and help you guys out. There is a way to go about things and we have to follow orders. You just—”

“Wait, did you say you would have talked to the general?” I snorted, my gaze fixing on the bare trees in the distance as I conjured the guy’s image. He was about as helpful as a sleeping pill and just as dampening on one’s hopes and dreams. “If that’s the only kind of help you can think of, I’m glad I kept her hidden. We’d be burying her as we speak.”

“Better than the fate you just handed to her—and likely to us by association. I don’t know her, but I bet she wouldn’t want to wake up as a flesh-eating monster.”

“And she won’t.”

“Right. What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to save her! You aren’t the only one capable of doing something about this zombie nightmare, just because you enlisted.”

“Save her? You? Please. We’ll be lucky if we can even save ourselves. If we run across a herd of zombies, we’re as good as dead. We’re all alone out here. We’ve got no communication, no weapons except my handgun, and we’re gonna be lugging an injured woman around—until she decides she wants a taste of us.” He shook his head. “You risked my life for a girl you barely know, you idiot.”

“I’m sorry,” I muttered, irritated. “Seriously. How many times do I have to apologize before you believe me? I really was just trying to do what’s right, trying to help someone.”

“Apologies don’t mean anything if you’d do the same crap over again…and you would.”

He was right, and I couldn’t argue with that, so I kept quiet.

Nick paced in a circle, his brows drawn. I’d never seen him so mad…or scared. “We’re in North Carolina. And our original destination is 600 miles away. I say we head back home which is 500 miles away. It’s going to take us three times as long to get back because we can only go certain routes.” He shook my shoulder as his voice thundered again. “Do you have any clue how dangerous it is out here? Do you? Well, I guess you never had a reason to think about it, all holed up safe and sound on the other side of those city walls on an island.”

I pushed him back as hard as I could. “Death and gore…it’s all people have been talking about for months, but—”

His blue eyes were intense, and I knew with one flash of them how pissed he was at me. “But nothing! You have no idea. This land is crawling with zombies that want nothing more than to eat our brains. You’ve been sheltered in the city since the breakout of the virus. While you’re out flirting with girls, going to school, and trying to live a normal life, the other troops and I have been out here in…in hell. I’ve seen it up close and personal, and I can tell you it ain’t pretty. In fact, it’s probably worse than those stories you’ve been hearing.”

“You’re treating me like a kid,” I admonished; I hated when he did that.

“Fine. Well, if you want to grow up, now’s the time.” He thrust his gun into my hands. “You’ve always begged me to be part of the action. Here’s your chance. You’re eighteen now, and I’ve protected you from all this ugliness long enough.”

“I don’t need your protection, Nick. I can take care of myself—and of Val if I need to.”

“Spoken like a true idiot. But anyway, keep that attitude. Even if it’s a load of crap you tell yourself, you’re going to need a bit of that cocky nonsense to survive.”

“I know it’s a hard, cruel world outside the city, but I can handle it. I’m a survivor!”

“Love your attitude. I just hope you’re prepared because you’re going to have to fight like you’ve never fought before.”

“Fine. You want me to take down some zombies? I’m up for that.” It wasn’t that I’d had much experience at such a thing, but I was sure it couldn’t possibly be that difficult to defeat a mindless army of already-dead freaks who walked around stumbling over everything. I’d been taking lessons at the shooting gallery all year, and I’d pretty much amazed myself.

“You’ll have plenty of chances to mow down some zombies later, trust me. Right now, though, you have to get rid of our other little problem.”

“What problem?”

“You’ve gotta kill her. You have to kill the girl and put her out of her misery.”

“What the heck are you talking about? I’m not killing anyone unless they’re dead already and trying to gnaw on my leg like a drumstick.”

“But leaving her to her fate is just…it’s cruel.”

My heart lurched. “No way.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re such a liar. You didn’t just meet her. How long have you been hiding your secret girlfriend from us?”

Girlfriend? She’s pretty and everything, but that’s just wrong.
“It’s not like that, man. I really did just meet her.”

“Here’s your chance to be a man, Dean. A real man has to make tough decisions—decisions that will save his own life and the lives of his trusted comrades. This girl—this Val—will kill you in a heartbeat, giving no thought to all your pillow talk or those cute little hearts she scribbled around your name in her diary. Leaving your friend here to face her fate is heartless and cold. If you care about her at all, whether you just met her or have been seeing her for months, please be a man and put a bullet in her head for all our sakes.”

I shook my head violently. He would never forgive himself, just like I wouldn’t.

“I’ve had to make hard decisions myself,” Nick continued, unfazed. “For goodness sake, I even walked in on my zombie girlfriend devouring a couple of my best friends. Shooting her was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do…but it had to be done, so I pulled the trigger.”

I shot him a hard look. “Who
are
you? You’re so cold, so heartless—not the big brother I grew up with. Protecting the city and killing zombies has made you a merciless killer.”

“We have to face the reality of the situation. I know what she’ll become. Except for the first night it happened, you’ve never seen it outside of television reports, but I have.”

“You’ve changed, Nick. When you suited up for the Army, you became…different. You talk about
her
becoming a monster, but maybe you should take a good look at yourself.”

He cocked a brow. “You’re calling
me
a monster? Really?”

I nodded. Even though I could see the way he clenched his fists, I kept going. “Just look at you. You’re somebody else. I don’t even recognize you anymore.”

His eyes narrowed into slits, as if he might argue for a moment, and then they softened with the pain of the truth. “Well, yeah. I guess being out here all the time…well, it changes you.”

I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I just wanted to get Val and get out of there before the army of the undead showed up. “Val’s coming with us, and that’s final.”

“Dean, come on. Don’t you get it? Once she dies…” He threw his hands up in the air to make his point. “Look, I’ve seen it myself. When they come back—when she comes back—they aren’t people anymore. Give me the gun, and I’ll do it myself.”

“Don’t you dare!” I shouted. I wanted to pound the idiot so hard. “Listen—”

Grabbing the gun out of my hands, he cocked it and pointed down at Val’s head. “We’re doing her a favor. Besides, she’ll try to eat us the second we fall asleep. Is that what you want, little brother? I mean, I’m sure you would love her to nibble on your ear and all, but not literally.”

Ignoring his attempt at sick humor, I jumped into the path of the gun.