PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
A warm
breeze carries the promise of a storm and whips the tops of the trees, but the
grass around us is still, as though it fears the squall to come. In the
distance, birds twitter hurriedly as gray and black clouds infiltrate the last
patches of blue sky.
We’re
stopped before a stronghold. From where we’re parked atop a hill, the city
below seems to be encased in a solid metal wall that curves off out of sight
and into neighboring woods. The wall is at least twenty feet tall with men
guarding the barbed-wire top.
And the
entire wall is surrounded by undead.
Jay lets
out a low whistle while I cut the engine. We’re perched at the top of the hill just
outside the city. The inside of the city looks untouched, but it’s impossible
to tell how far the seclusion goes for.
“So it’s
true,” Belle sighs, leaning forward in the backseat so that her head is level
with Jay’s and mine. “This really is the safest place in what used to be our
country, huh?”
“But why
here?” I ask, suspicious. “Why where the virus began?”
“And how
the hell are we going to get inside?” Jay asks irritatingly, picking at the
bandages at his throat.
“Stop,” I
scold him, slapping his hand away from his wound. He gives me a pathetic look not
unlike a golden retriever caught chewing its stitches.
“Hayden,
they look pretty organized here,” Jay says after a thoughtful pause following
his admonishment. My eyes follow the armored men that pace together along the
top of the reinforced wall. “Established. What do you think they’ll do to a
couple of people like us?”
I shrug,
then immediately wince in pain. My shoulder never did heal fully from the
incident at the school. “They might want to take some blood samples. Do what
the Professor was doing, you know. He asked me a lot of questions, read a lot
of books. Maybe they have a whole science department here, for all we know.” I
exhale sadly. “Oliver would love that.”
Belle tips
her head back and peers through the sunroof of the car. “Another storm’s
coming.” Traces of sunlight dance on her face. “A big one.”
After
checking my rearview mirror, I open the car door and step outside. Behind us,
large gray clouds bubble and boil, spilling into the sky with a roll of
thunder. Ahead of us lies the city, the undead rumbling against the metal barricade
in piles as though trying to find a break in the seamless wall.
A loud horn
pierces through the still air and I spin around to face the car. My wide eyes
find Jay laying his hand on the horn, glaring ahead determinedly.
“People are
getting into this city somehow!” Jay shouts over the noise as I turn back to
the armored gates. “They need to know that we’re here!”
We caught
the attention of the guards the moment the horn sounded. But we also drew the
attention of the undead. They shift at the sound, milling in small circles
before realigning their bodies with our car instead of the gate.
“Idiot!” I
shout, climbing back into the car and slamming the door shut. I start the
engine back up. “You’re just getting the attention of the others! Stop!” I pull
his hand off the horn and the air goes still again. The light around our car
goes dark as the clouds engulf the sun above.
“Got their
attention, too,” Jay says with a smirk. The guards atop the wall now point and
call to us.
I slam my
head back against the headrest. The undead that were attracted to the sound of
the horn are back to ignoring us, turning to face the wall once more. As I study
their movements, I spot a couple of roads at the bottom of the hill that veers
into the woods surrounding the city.
“Maybe…” I
murmur, a plan forming as the first raindrop splashes the windshield. “Jay,
honk my horn.”
“Is
that…code?”
“No, Jay. Seatbelts,
everyone!” I cry, clipping my own into place. “Jay!”
“Okay!” He
says enthusiastically, and lays his hand down on my steering wheel.
“Keep
holding it, okay?” I call over the sound of the horn. Then, I throw my foot
down on the gas pedal.
“Hayden, what
the hell?!” Belle cries out, and I hear her thud back against the car seat.
“Don’t
worry. I have a plan.”
We bound
over the hill and approach the city with mounting speed. Rows upon rows of
undead turn to the sound of my horn, abandoning their posts at the wall. Above,
the soldiers literally scratch their heads at what I’m doing.
Just before
we reach the group of undead, I veer right onto the road I spotted from atop
the hill. The undead to our side, ahead and behind are all drawn to the sound
of the blaring horn, and as I speed past the trees on the gravel road, they
begin to chase us. Behind us, they sprint after our car. Ahead of us, they
prepare as though ready to pounce on us when we will eventually drive by.
Undead
bodies tackle our car and are thrown off as I turn off the road and onto
another, following the wall of the city. The undead, bumping and wrestling against
the body of the car, throws the vehicle slightly off balance, but I press on,
attracting the attention of every undead in the area.
“What the
hell are you planning?” Jay asks me, his eager eyes finding mine in the chaos.
I grin
back. Even though he doesn’t know what I’m planning, he trusts me enough to not
let his hand leave the horn. I like that sense of trust. It gives me more
power.
I gun it through
the woods, plowing through undead while others struggle to keep up. I turn
hard, and thuds ring out as undead pummel against the side of the car. I force
the car back around down the second road, heading back to the direction of the
gate. The undead have fallen behind in a mist of dirt and dust, and we finally
reappear at the base of the hill where we started.
The
entrance to the gate is now clear; all of the undead followed us into the
woods. That means, of course, that there’s a large hoard trailing behind us now.
As Jay relinquishes the horn, I can only hope the guards know what I plan to
do.
They do.
For a split second, someone is as crazy as Jay to trust me, and the gates are
cranked open. The back of the car fishtails as the wheels try to catch friction
against the ground, throwing the last of the undead off of our car; the rest
are not far behind.
Rain pelts
down against the windshield as the car guns forward, into the growing gap in
the wall. Just as the passage becomes big enough for the car to fit through,
the front of our car enters the sanctuary beyond.
The
side-view mirrors snap off from either side of the car, and lingering undead on
the sides scrape to pieces between car and wall. In a heartbeat, I’ve zoomed
through the gate. Before I know it, another wall rapidly approaches.
An airbag
blows up in my face and I start laughing amidst the deafening screeching and
crash of totaling the car. My seatbelt tugs painfully against my chest and
shoulders, and my laugh turns into a cry of pain. I’m crying and laughing and
pummeling at the airbag with my fists to breathe properly.
“Is
everyone okay?” I cry out, but I hear Jay laughing and Belle screaming
obscenities and I know we're all fine. We picked up a lot of speed before the
impact, but the turn into the gate slowed us down substantially. I sit in
disbelief that my plan worked.
Around us
are the sounds of gunfire and a grinding hum of metal scraping against the
earth. My eyes go to the rearview mirror and I watch the gate doors collide to
a close behind us.
I unbuckle
my belt and pull on the handle of the car door, stumbling outside into the cool
air. I whip my head around, finding us stuck between two towering metal walls.
We’re not inside the city just yet.
A man in a
uniform approaches me, wearing a dark helmet and a solid black jumper, his arms
occupied by a machine gun. “Of course, it was a woman driving.”
“I’m gonna
pretend that in this post-apocalyptic era, sexist jokes don’t exist. What’s
with the second gate?”
“This is a
checkpoint. We check to see if any arriving survivors have been bitten,” says
the guard, propping his gun up and pointing it at me.
Uh-oh.
Right. Telling a guy at gunpoint that I’ve been bitten but survived. I suck in
a deep breath and look him straight in the eye. “I’m immune,” I say carefully.
“Immune?”
The man echoes with a wary gaze. He doesn’t lower his gun.
“So’s he,”
I say, nodding back to Jay, who I hear getting out of his car. “The girl in the
back, Belle, she hasn’t been bit.”
“So you
have been bit?”
“Twice,
weeks ago. I passed out but I didn’t turn.”
“And him?”
He inquires, motioning to Jay with his gun. I feel a warm bead of sweat drip
down my spine.
“Same
thing,” Jay says from behind me. Maybe he thinks that telling them that he was
bit only two hours ago is too risky. I don’t correct him.
“And she’s
clean?” The guard confirms. More guards stand around us now, each one wielding
intimidating-looking guns.
“Totally.”
I nod eagerly. How desperately I need this man to believe that we’re safe.
He nods
once. “Okay. But a full-body check is mandatory. We aren’t missing anything in
between these gates. If we let one infected person into the city, it’ll be the
end of the world all over again.”
I nod in
agreement. “Safety first.”
After
we give our names, the guard motions to the others. At gunpoint, they round
Belle, Jay and me up like cattle and begin ushering us away from the still-smoking
car.
We’re led
into a separate metal hallway built into the outer wall of the city. To my
dismay, Jay and Belle are led into different rooms and I’m taken to an empty,
cold room at the end of the dimly lit hall.
After an
extended, humiliating strip-down before three male guards, a fourth man, a
doctor, is called into the room. I’m allowed to put on my undergarments and
jeans as he examines the wound at my wrist and shoulder, neither of which have
fully healed.
My back to
the door, the doctor gently probes at the bite marks as I stare up at the
ceiling, desperately wishing to be reunited with Jay and Belle even though it
couldn’t be more than fifteen minutes since our separation. Suddenly, a
familiar voice drifts through the door.
“I caught
the name of the people that drove in here like maniacs, and I had to see if…”
My heart
stops. No. What are the chances, honestly, of him being here? Most of the world
is undead and the one guy I never want to see again is alive? Is that some kind
of a sick joke?
I pull away
from the doctor to face the doorway and the man standing in it. He’s in a
guard’s get-up, his shaggy hair pressed flat against his forehead from the
helmet.
He stares
at me through his visor, squinting his eyes, when a small smile appears on his
lips. “Did your tits get bigger?”
“For the
love of God,” I sigh, reaching for my shirt off a nearby chair.
“The
examination isn’t complete,” the doctor argues.
“Yes, it
is.” I snap, wrestling myself into my shirt. Some of Danny’s last words replay
in my head, and I want so badly to hurt something or someone that I clench my
hands and teeth and resist the urge to snatch a gun. “I can’t believe you haven’t learned from your past mistakes. After
everything you’ve done to me – to me, personally!”
And here he
stands, the very reason for hard feelings and a splintered friendship. Someone
from long before any of this. Back when the world still made sense.
“Mike,” I
hiss, crossing my arms tight over my chest. “What the hell are you doing alive?”
He only
smiles.
