Zomb-Pocalypse 3 Read online

  I stare at Ryan and feel some of my happiness from earlier melt away as guilt takes its place. “Ryan, we need to talk,” I say, and he gives me a small smile.

  “It’s okay,” he says, and I stare at him in confusion.

  “What’s okay?”

  “I know what you’re going to say,” he tells me. “I’m not blind, I know you’ve been pulling away from me lately.” He shrugs like it’s not a big deal, but I can see the hurt in his eyes. “We didn’t make any promises to each other. We clung to each other because we were on the road, but now we’re as safe as we can be and we’re building a life here and I know that you don’t feel the same way you used to.” Tears prick my eyes at his understanding words. Why does he have to be so amazing? It’s not even that my feelings for him have changed; it’s just that my feelings for Silas have grown so much stronger—and I feel like a terrible person because of it.

  “I am so sorry,” I gush. “You know that I love you, and I never would’ve survived if it hadn’t been for you,” I tell him honestly. “You came with me to try and find my parents and you didn’t have to. You risked your life for me, and now I feel awful that this is happening.” Ryan wraps me back in a hug, but this time he doesn’t try to kiss me, and I don’t pull away.

  “Jane, just because we aren’t going to be boyfriend and girlfriend doesn’t change the way I feel about you. We will always be friends, and I will always protect you and want to see that you are happy.” His words make me feel like the worst.

  “I will always protect you too,” I promise, and I mean it. I wouldn’t hesitate to give my life protecting anyone in this cabin—well, I’m actually on the fence about Barry—but everyone else—I wouldn’t even have to think... “You’re one of my best friends,” I tell him, and Ryan smiles.

  “You too,” he says as he lets me go and steps back. “I’ll see you in the morning, okay?” he says, and I nod.

  “Good night.” Ryan turns away from me to face the rest of the group. Megan and Abby are talking to Regg. Silas is standing with them, but he isn’t paying attention to what they’re saying. He’s watching me. I wipe my tears away and turn my back on the others so they won’t see as Ryan says goodnight. Regg joins him and the two walk out to the camper parked in the driveway.

  Megan and Abby look at Silas, who’s still hanging around, and they quickly excuse themselves, heading up to bed so we can have a little privacy. Silas approaches and stares down at me for so long that I start to get uncomfortable. “I told Ryan that we couldn’t be anything more than friends,” I say to break the silence, and Silas looks at me critically.

  “Is that what you really want?” he asks, and I nod.

  “It is.”

  “Then why are you crying?” he asks softly as he steps closer and uses the pad of his thumb to wipe the tears from my cheeks. It’s a strangely nice gesture, coming from Silas, and I smile even though my face is wet from tears.

  “I feel bad,” I admit. “Ryan did so much for me, he came with me to find my parents and he’s saved my life so many times.” I shrug. “I guess I just feel like I’m a terrible person for abandoning him now that we’re safe. I do care about him still, just not like that.” My voice is nearly a whisper when I finish, and Silas nods like he actually understands.

  “We are never safe, Blondie, not anymore. If that is why you feel guilty, then you shouldn’t.” His words don’t have the reassuring quality that he probably intended. I frown and he leans in and kisses me softly before pulling away. “I’m glad you did it,” he admits, and I look up at him in surprise. Silas has kissed me a few times, but I really wasn’t sure if he would care that I broke up with Ryan, not that we were ever technically dating... Silas is so hard to read, with the exception of confessing he liked me when he thought we were going to die, he’s never acted like my relationship with Ryan bothered him. This is my first peek into his mind, and I’m intrigued.

  Of course, he clams up immediately afterwards. “Happy Birthday,” he tells me as he pulls away and heads for the door. I stare after him, my mouth agape a little. He stops and looks back at me, and my heart leaps. “Don’t forget to lock this door,” he cautions me, and I frown at him—that wasn’t exactly what I thought he was going to say.

  “I will,” I snap, and he grins at me like he knows he’s messing with my head, and he grabs the door handle like he’s going to leave. Typical Silas. I cross my arms over my chest, waiting for him to leave so I can lock the door and head up to bed to dissect every little piece of this conversation and try to figure out what in the heck is going on inside Silas’s head.

  Silas doesn’t leave though; he just stands at the door for a minute with his hand on the handle. “What are you doing?” I ask, and he spins around at my question, striding towards me. He kisses me so hard my head spins and my knees go weak. I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on to keep from collapsing. After a minute, he pulls back and rests his forehead against mine. “I like you, Blondie,” he says, and then he really does turn around and walk out the door. I grip the couch and stare at the door for a minute with a big grin on my face.

  “Are you going to lock the door?” Mom asks, making me jump. I turn around and face her, a blush on my cheeks, though hopefully she won’t be able to see it in the dim firelight.

  “Did you see that?” I ask, and she nods.

  “The end of it,” she admits.

  “Do you still not like him?” I ask her, wanting her approval.

  Mom thinks about it for a minute. “I like him just fine. Your dad told me about how protective he was of you when you were out on that Wal-Mart run. Your dad really likes him, and I think it’s nice.” She pauses and walks across the room to lock the door herself. I watch her click the lock into place, and she comes over and gives me a hug. “I just want you to be careful,” she cautions, and I brace myself for her speech. “Having a boyfriend now is a little different than before.”

  “How so?” I can’t help asking. I mean, sure we can’t go out to the movies or anything, but I’m not really sure what other differences she’s talking about. Did the rules of dating change when the zombies arrived?

  Mom hesitates. “Well, for starters, you can’t really go out on dates, and you are practically living together.”

  “He lives out in the camper,” I object, but my Mom rolls her eyes at me.

  “The driveway is really not a separate residence,” she counters. “Besides, I’m sure those boys will have to move inside this winter when it gets too cold out—it’s probably too cold out there now.”

  “They still have some propane left for heat,” I tell her, since I’d just heard Regg mention it the day before.

  “Alright. I just worry about you. Teenage pregnancy is not something I want for you,” she says, making me flush red with indignation. “It wouldn’t have been ideal before, but a baby right now, with the zombies.” Mom shudders, and I’m pretty sure we are both thinking about Natalie.

  “Mom!” I splutter. “I’m not going to be doing...that!” I tell her. “Geez!”

  Mom stares at me for a minute before she nods. “Okay, I just want you to really think about the consequences of things.” She stops and sighs, “I guess this is a conversation I should be having with all three of you girls, not just you.”

  I jump at my chance of escape. “Yeah, okay, that sounds good. Save it for another day,” I agree as I start edging towards the stairs.

  “Jane,” Mom calls me back, and I stop and turn around to face her.

  “What?”

  “Happy Birthday.”

  “I wonder what we would’ve been doing today if the zombies hadn’t come?” I ask before I can stop myself.

  “You would’ve been bowling and getting an IPad,” Mom answers without even having to think about it.

  “What?” I splutter. “How do you know?”

  “Because I reserved the bowling alley for you and your friends ages ago, and I bought you an IPad,” she tells me in a matter-of-fact way.
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br />   “Today was still great,” I tell her, and she beams.

  “Sweet dreams,” she calls after me as I start up the stairs, and I tell her that I love her.

  Abby and Megan are waiting for me when I get upstairs. “What happened?” they whisper, not wanting to wake up Sunny.

  I grin and jump next to them on the bed. “Silas kissed me,” I confess, and they squeal with excitement. “And then my mom saw us,” I say with a groan, and they laugh.

  “Only you could find love during the zombie apocalypse,” Abby teases, and I blush.

  “I’m not sure it’s love,” I say, with a huge yawn emphasizing my words, “But he does give me butterflies.” Megan and Abby grin at that.

  I check the light-up watch on Megan’s wrist and see that it’s nearly midnight, which isn’t too bad for a normal teenager, but we have to be up early tomorrow, chopping wood, and we were up early today and I’m exhausted. We each crawl into our own beds, and I don’t even get that chance to think about Silas; I’m too tired.

  Sunny’s shriek startles all three of us awake. I leap out of bed, half-asleep, and make my way over to her bed. Megan is already there, and Abby stumbles over a minute later.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, but Sunny shakes her head.

  “I heard them,” she says, shaking and crying, and her words make goose pimples break out on my arm.

  “It was just a dream,” Megan soothes as she rubs Sunny’s back, but the little girl stubbornly shakes her head.

  “It wasn’t a dream. I heard them.” She insists.

  “Okay. I’ll go and look out the window, how about that?” Megan asks, and Sunny looks terrified, but finally she nods.

  Abby stays with Sunny on the bed, and Megan and I walk over to the window to look out. It’s darker than the inside of a cow, and we can’t really see anything. “See, there’s nothing—” Megan starts to say when the loud echo of a gunshot interrupts her. We see the flair of the muzzle flash and pin-point that it’s coming from a couple cabins over. “What in the hell are they doing?” Megan demands as she leans forward, pressing her nose against the glass as she tries to see what’s going on.

  “We should probably get away from the windows,” I suggest, not wanting to get hit by a stray bullet.

  “But why are they firing?” Megan demands as she continues to search the blackness of the night. Several more gunshots erupt, and again we can see the flashes like tiny fireworks in the dark. Megan looks back at Sunny to see how she’s taking it. Sunny has her face pressed against Abby’s shoulder and she’s shaking like a leaf. “Do you think there are zombies out there?” she leans in and asks me in a whisper, and I shrug helplessly.

  “Hopefully they are just drunk or something,” I say, but Megan doesn’t look convinced and I’m honestly not either. We haven’t had the time to meet our neighbors yet, but they don’t seem like the type to do something so reckless for no reason. No one that has survived this long would do something as reckless as fire an un-muzzled gun at night, not unless they had no other choice.

  “We need to help them.” Megan says, but I know there is no way in hell my parents are going to let us go out there in the dark. I’m not even sure if Regg would want to risk it.

  “I don’t think we should go outside. We could get shot, or worse,” I say, my voice shaking a little. Megan turns to me like she’s going to argue, but the moon suddenly slips out from behind a cloud and illuminates the ground below, and all argument about going outside or not, becomes moot.

  There are zombies everywhere.

  I feel a scream bubble up in my throat, so I slap my hand over my mouth just in case I can’t control the urge. There has to be at least a couple hundred zombies milling around down there. “Where did they all come from?” Megan asks, but I don’t have the answer.

  My mind races back to that zombie in the woods today and I can’t help but wonder if that was a precursor to all of this. I feel like breaking down and crying like a little girl, I’m so worried and disappointed. We had all just started to feel safe here, I should’ve known it was too good to last.

  My next thought is even more terrifying. What about Silas, Ryan, and Regg? They are trapped outside in what basically amounts to a tin can. Fear races through my body and makes my stomach clench, and I turn and start tearing the room apart, looking for extra ammo rounds.

  “This is going to be bad,” Megan whispers, and I don’t know what to say, so I say nothing. She isn’t wrong.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I have to go find my parents,” I tell the girls as I grab my pistol and double check that it’s loaded.

  “Jane, I don’t think you should go,” Abby mumbles, and I shake my head.

  “Who else is going to do it?” I ask, but she doesn’t have a more viable candidate. She just stands there looking at me helplessly. I know she’s terrified right now; we all are. My mind keeps asking myself how this could happen.

  I know how though, we got too complacent, in just a week and a half. We thought we were untouchable up here on this mountain. Now I just hope we don’t die for our idiocy. My weapons belt settles around my hip like an old friend, and I hope it still has a little bit of luck left in it. I add a few extra magazines before I stop and listen at the door. I doubt the zombies are inside the cabin. They aren’t exactly skilled at sneaking around, but it pays to be cautious. I don’t hear anything thumping or bumping, so I ease the door open and slip out into the pitch black hallway without another word to the others.

  I can’t use my flashlight because none of the windows are covered and if we draw attention to ourselves right now, we’ll be dead. I don’t need light though; I know my path by heart. I pause at the top of the stairs to listen again. I can hear the moans of the dead, but they aren’t inside the house—the sound is too faint.

  I reach my parent’s bedroom without encountering any problems and I stand in their doorway, marveling that they are still asleep with all the gun shots sounding off. They are on the other side of the cabin though, so maybe that makes a difference. I step into the room and the floorboard creaks.

  “Who’s there?” Dad demands, sounding instantly alert. I hear him rustling around and know he’s going for the light. He probably has a knife in his hand too. If he touches the light, we will all be toast.

  “Don’t turn on the light,” I tell them, barely suppressing the urge to yell it. “It’s me, Jane.”

  “Jane?” Mom asks, sounding sleepy.

  “Why can’t we turn on the light?” Dad asks suspiciously, and I take a deep breath. I’m going to have to shatter their illusion of safety.

  “Zombies,” I say and hear Mom gasp. I instantly regret being so dramatic. “They’re outside and there are a lot of them.” I frown, that wasn’t really any better. “You guys should come upstairs; you can see more from up there.”

  I lead the way, and my parents follow me back upstairs without argument. I tap gently on the door before I open it. I don’t want Megan blowing my brains out.

  The room is dark, but the moonlight coming in through the large window illuminates the room enough to see that everyone is exactly where I left them, and they all look terrified.

  My parents stare out the window, and I watch their shoulders sag when they see exactly what we’re dealing with. “How did this happen?” Mom asks, but none of us answer. I don’t know the exact logistics of how the zombies made it up the mountain, no doubt they probably stumbled along and followed the road, but it doesn’t even matter now. We need to think about what to do now that they’re here, and our best chances at survival are sleeping twenty feet away in a trailer that is now doubling as their prison cell.

  “We need to get the guys,” I say, since no one else is suggesting anything.

  “I’m sorry, Jane, but it’s just too dangerous,” Dad tells me gently, and I know it isn’t easy for him to say no. He cares about those three, but there is no way he is going to sanction a suicide mission either.

  I walk out of the room, and
Dad follows me. “You’re not going out there,” he tells me, grabbing at my arm until I stop and face him.

  “Do you think I’m crazy?” I snap. “We need to figure out what’s going on out there and we can’t see the driveway from here.” I point down the hall to the room that used to belong to Natalie and Hank. I haven’t been in there since before Natalie turned and attacked Hank, but I’m determined to do what I have to.

  “Okay, but I’m coming with you,” Dad says, and I shake my head.

  “You should really go wake Barry up. If he wakes up on his own and turns on a light, he’s going to attract every zombie at the lake.”

  “Shit, you’re right,” Dad says as he hurries off into Barry’s room. My dad never curses, so that alone is really telling about the level of stress he’s feeling with this zombie invasion. I stand at the threshold of the third bedroom for a moment to collect my nerve before I force myself to walk in. The room looks the same as it always did, except that the carpet has been ripped out and thrown away. I don’t look anywhere but the window as I walk through. I peek out the window and see that there are zombies in the driveway too, but not as many as I saw from my bedroom window. They are wandering around mindlessly, stumbling in the ruts. I can’t help but notice that every time the gunfire comes from the other cabin, it draws more and more of them off.

  I stand there watching for several minutes while a plan starts to form in my head. It’s crazy and if I do survive, I’ll be punished severely. If I fail—I don’t even want to think about it. If I fail and attract the zombies’ attention, then I won’t be able to return to the cabin, or I could risk bringing this horde down on everyone that I love.

  I stare down at the trailer, indecision gnawing at my guts. I did just promise that I’d do anything to protect Ryan, and not just him. I would risk my life to protect every single person in that trailer right now. I can’t turn my back on any of them, especially not right after making that kind of proclamation.

  I’d said I’d give my life for them, and it seems like fate has decided to test me. I bite my lip as I stare at the trailer, looking for any sign that the guys are awake and aware of the situation. I don’t see any sign of movement, but that doesn’t mean they’re asleep. I can’t really imagine Silas sleeping through all this gunfire. I take a deep breath and head for the stairs, slipping out past the other bedrooms and down the stairs before anyone has a chance to see me.