The Zombie Chronicles - Book 6 - Revelation (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) (38 page)

“
What’s the matter, Dean? Afraid of the dark?” Kate asked.

“
No. It’s not the dark I fear. It’s what’s in the dark. These are a whole new kind of bogeymen.”

“
Don’t worry,” Asia said. “I’ll play lookout. I can see everything perfectly.”

“
Good,” Kate said. “Then get those eyes to work!”

We walked steadily down the corridor, then made a left and a right down a twisting path. Suddenly, I heard crunching, and my muscles ached with tension. I swung my flashlight beam in front of me as I walked through the musty dimness. “Hear that?” I asked.

Kate’s eyes jerked with fear. “It sounds like something…” Her voice trailed off. “Like something from my worst nightmare.”

Terror was plastered on Asia’s face. “It’s…eating.”

There was more crunching, followed by sickening slurping.

Kate slapped her hand over her mouth.

I shined my light down the dark hallway. My weak beam landed on a zombie that was slurping and biting into a human leg. Its white eyes widened as it met my gaze, but then its focus returned to its prize.

Asia pounded the slimy slurper, and it was dead on impact.

Kate’s fast, heavy panting made it clear that she’d reached her breaking point. In fact, we all had, but we had to go on.

Wiping the sweat off my forehead, I motioned her down the hall. As we ran, I saw an unidentifiable shadow and began to hear voices coming from the end of the passageway. I was sure it was another herd of hybrids, and I was quickly tiring of having to fight them off.

Chapter 36

Kate’s hand trembled as she raised it to point. “I see something.”

A menacing, dark shadow shifted closer. When I heard its heavy footsteps clomping across the corridor, I stopped, my breath heaving.

“
Well? Fight or flight, people?” Kate asked.

“
I say we smack it into next week,” Asia said.

“
No, I heard voices,” I said. “That means there is more than one.”

As I peered intently to eye my enemy, it limped toward me, dragging a bloody axe. “That’s it. I’m gonna take it out,” I said.

“
But you said—” Kate started.

“
That was before I spotted that!” I said, pointing to the shimmering axe.

“
Oh my gosh!” she said. “I see it!”

“
Dean,” Asia said, “we need that weapon!”

“
I know, and I’m gonna get it,” I said, inching toward my opponent. Suddenly, I could make out the outline of a second figure coming up from behind the zombie. Strangely, it clobbered the thing, and the zombie crashed to the ground with a
thud
. Whoever it was, they were on our side; either that, or they were just after the axe, like I was.

The man walked closer. “Dean? Is that you?”

“
Larry!” I exclaimed. “Yeah, it’s me,” I said, inching cautiously closer.

“
The rotten thing was pounding on our door,” he said, his voice trembling. “I had to take care of it before it invited all of its friends to our hiding place. Thanks for distracting it.”

I flashed my beam on him, and he squinted. He was still barefoot and dressed in the gown we’d put on him. He sounded human, so I inched forward, holding up my weapon.

“
Put the pipe down. It’s just me,” Larry said. “Sam’s in here too. Now hurry up and get in here!”

Reaching down, I grabbed the prized axe from its slimy hands.

“
We’ve got a weapon!” Asia said.

At the same time, a hysterical woman with bulging eyes ran past us, screaming in absolute insanity and terror.

“
Shut her up!” another woman said, sticking her head out through the doorway.

Kate gave the woman a hug, and she sobbed into her chest. “It killed my friend! It just punched its fist through her chest and ripped out her heart.”

It was a sick, disturbing, and gruesome mental picture, and I couldn’t imagine such unspeakable horror. Those walking corpses weren’t going to let us leave alive, and they were picking the remaining survivors off one by one. As I thought about it, it all began to weigh down on me.

Kate ushered the scared woman into the room with other survivors.

“
Well, hurry up and get in here,” Larry said, then shut the door and locked it behind us.

People started barricading us in with tables and shelves and whatever else they could find to keep the dead from getting inside. The survivors on the other side of the room were bickering among themselves. About a dozen had survived the initial attack.

“
They’re scientists,” one man said. “They could pull a switch and flood this whole freaking place with poisonous gas!”

“
I doubt that,” another said. “If they had that option, they would’ve already killed us.”

“
They’re letting the hybrids do all the work,” a woman said.

“
I’m not sure when the axe is gonna drop,” a man said, “but it will.”

“
We’re all going to die!” a woman shouted. “They’re just murderers in lab coats!”

“
Nobody’s dying today,” Kate said.

“
Oh yeah?” the woman retorted. “Tell that to the ones they slaughtered out there. They’re snacking on my boyfriend’s tongue this very minute.”

“
Let’s look for anything we can use for a weapon,” I said. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but like Kate said, I’m not dying today.”

When I looked at the woman they’d just let in, I noticed that she was bleeding. In fact, her gown was covered in blood, and others started to notice it too.

“
Were you bitten or scratched?” a short man asked.

“
No!” the woman retorted. “It’s
my
blood. I fought the knife attack off with a chair.”

“
She lying!” a man shouted. “Throw her out! She’s infected, and she’ll be the death of us all!”

Her eyes bulged. “You’ve gotta believe me,” she begged, shaking her head. “I swear they didn’t get me!”

I pointed my axe at the crowd. “Leave her alone!”

The group sneered but slowly backed off.

“
Dean,” Sam said.

I looked up at him. “You survived that zombie onslaught.”

“
You too.” He patted my shoulder. “Man, kid. I was sure those zombies got ya, kid.”

“
We’re fine,” Asia sneered.

Kate walked up to me and tugged on my arm. “We shouldn’t box ourselves in like this.”

“
Just give me a minute to get a game plan together,” I said.

She nodded, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

I embraced her in a long hug.

“
Dean,” she whispered.

“
Yeah?”

“
If we don’t make it, I want you to know that I’m glad I got to meet you. You really are a hero, and we did some good things to help people. If this is the end, at least we’ve saved lives before—”

“
No, Kate. Don’t talk like that. I’m not giving up, and I won’t let you,” I said.

She squeezed me tighter. “I know. I-I just wanted to tell you that. I just wanted closure, just in case.” She paused when her voice began to crack. “Thanks for saving my life back in Kingsville.”

“
No thanks necessary, Kate. We make a great team,” I said.

“
We sure do.”

Sam called Kate over, and they discussed how many hybrids we’d run into.

Asia, on the other hand, refused to talk to him; getting thrown off a bridge wasn’t exactly easy for her to forget. She grabbed my shoulder and pointed toward a group. “You’ll never guess who’s here,” she said.

Jonathon?
My jaw dropped when I saw him standing off to the side of a cluster of people. There, right in the same room, was the man who had killed Jackie. Anger flooded through me, and I lunged for him. As two men pulled me back, I was overcome with a rage I’d never felt before, even more hot anger than I felt for the zombies and the hybrids.

“
Calm down,” a man said.

“
You’re a dead man, Jonathon!” I shouted. “You took her from me!”

“
Shut him up!” a woman said. “He’s gonna attract more zombies!”

Jonathon pushed his glasses up on his nose. “What are you talking about, Dean? Who did I take?”

“
I know you killed Jackie!” I said.

“
Calm down,” one of the men said, “or we’re gonna have to…sedate you.”

I took a big, calming breath, and the men loosened their grip. “I think Jonathon and I need a minute alone,” I said.

Jonathon nodded. “That’s fine.” He grabbed my arm and led me over to the other side of the room.

“
Why did you do it?” I asked.

“
Who told you I did?” he asked.

“
Don’t play dumb. Charlie told me everything.”

Jonathon inched toward me. “Charlie is running this entire operation, Dean.”

“
You’re lying,” I said. “If you knew that, why didn’t you tell me about any of this before?”

“
Because it was top secret,” he said. “We were sworn to secrecy. Besides, I didn’t think there was anything down here. I knew Charlie was doing experiments on zombies, but I never thought—”

Still not buying it, I cut him off. “Did you bring us from the nursing home to be used as lab rats?”

“
No! Never. I knew Charlie’s a little crazy, but he swore he wouldn’t hurt any of you, and he didn’t. In fact, he became great friends with Val and Claire. He kept his word—or at least I thought he did.”

“
If you had nothing to do with this, then what are you doing down here?” I asked.

“
Haven’t you wondered why you haven’t seen me?”

“
Yeah?”

“
Because I was being held down here against my will,” he said.

“
I didn’t know.”

“
But now you do. They left me for dead down here, to be devoured by hybrids or zombies or infected animals.” He looked me straight in the eyes. “I didn’t kill Jackie, Dean. Charlie did.”

I couldn’t believe I’d been deceived by Charlie, and it was even more infuriating to know that I’d risked my life to save the life of Jackie’s killer. I had saved the life of the man who’d killed my precious Jackie, and that nauseated me.

“
I didn’t know what was going on down here,” Jonathon said. “When I found out what Charlie’s been up to, it came as the biggest shock of my life.”

“
How many of the scientists know about this lair?” I asked.

“
About half. The others just figured they were testing zombies, and they wanted no part of it. We had no idea how sick Charlie is, Dean. He really is a brilliant man. I guess he just lost his mind somewhere along the way, the proverbial mad scientist.”

“
Why is he creating a hybrid army?” I asked. “You know how dangerous those things are! You’ve seen it for yourself.”

“
The gang is moving in on his territory. He wants to send the hybrids out to destroy them.”

“
What!? That’s nuts! He can’t just send a swarm of hybrids out into Fairport!”

“
He’s figured out a way to control them, something about a chip implanted in their brains.”