Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues

Chapter 26

Food was brought in for Philip and me, once again on plastic cafeteria trays. Cheeseburgers and fries this time, and, of course, a side of brains.

The amount of brains they were giving me was generous—which either meant they didn’t know how much I needed, or they expected me to burn them off. Considering how much Dr. Charish clearly knew about zombies, I had a bad feeling it was the second reason.

Philip twitched then went still again, eyes remaining closed. I had a feeling he was awake and was trying to get his bearings without giving himself away. And he’d have probably pulled it off if I hadn’t been paying close attention—also known as “bored out of my mind.”

“Hey, Philip,” I said. “There’s no one else in here or the observation room, but I’m sure they’re still monitoring us.”

He opened his eyes and looked at me. I allowed myself a moment of self-congratulation that I was right about him being wide-awake. He sat up, eyes flicking around the room, taking in the blood that covered the floor and us.

“There’s some food for you,” I said with a nod toward the second tray. “Brains too, which you’ll want to eat, I’m sure.”

A flicker of disgust passed over his face, and I almost laughed. “Yeah, I know,” I said. “But your instincts will take over quickly enough.”

“He shot me,” he said in a low voice. Frowning, he pulled his shirt up, but even through the dried and congealed blood it was obvious he was unwounded. He ran his hand over his chest. “That’s amazing.”

“Yeah, it’s fucking miraculous…as long as you’re tanked up.”

“Tanked up?” He gave me a puzzled look.

“Well fed on brains,” I explained.

“Ah. Well that shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.

I lifted an eyebrow. “Uh, right. Well, here’s the deal. The more you exert yourself, the more brains you’ll need. So your days of weight training and ten mile runs are over.”

His brows drew together as he opened his mouth to argue, but I cut him off. “You still don’t get it, do you?” I said. “You don’t need to do all that training anymore. The zombie part of you takes care of being strong and fast, and all it wants in return is brains.”

He considered that for a moment. “But if I had sufficient brains, I could train to improve, right?”

Frowning, I shrugged. “I guess. Honestly I have no idea. I’ve never been much of a fitness chick. And I’ve never had so many extra brains that I would’ve been able to test it out.” Not that I’d want to. I still had nightmares about high school phys ed class. I pulled the second tray over to him. “Here. You need to eat.”

He lifted the plastic fork, hesitated, then dug into the brains.

“Jesus,” he mumbled, an expression of bliss crossing his face.

I grinned. “Yeah. Crazy shit, huh?” I let him eat for a few minutes. “Why on earth would you volunteer for this?” I asked him when he was nearly finished with the contents of the tray. “Did you know what you were getting into?”

A faint smile twitched the corner of his mouth. “Well, I didn’t know I would be shot and then…”

“Eaten?”

“Well…yes.” A bit more of a smile revealed itself. Maybe this guy had a personality after all. “We were told it was an experimental program with a high risk of death.”

“Again,” I said, “why the hell would you volunteer for something like that?”

“Because we were also told that if the procedure succeeded we would be unstoppable.” He ran a hand over his chest again. “Invincible.”

I sighed and leaned back against the wall. “Dude, you really should’ve read the fine print. It’s all candy and roses as long as you have the brains, but just see how you feel after you’ve been without for a few days.” I picked at a flake of dried blood. “This is all about making super zombie soldiers or some shit, right?”

He frowned and didn’t answer, which was all the answer I needed. I smiled thinly. “You look like the kind of guy who’s been in the military.”

“Three tours in Iraq,” he answered gruffly.

“Okay, well, I imagine there’s lots of exertion, right? Now can you see yourself lugging a cooler of brains around with you…?” I trailed off. God, I was slow sometimes. Dr. Charish had found a better use for fake brains than feeding civilian zombies. Zombie super soldiers. Unstoppable and invincible.

Philip didn’t seem to notice my shift in mood. “They’ll take care of me. I have no doubt about that.”

The door swung open, and the man in the suit came in. “Yes, we’ll take good care of Philip,” he said, confirming my suspicion that they were constantly listening in. “In fact it’s time for him to come with us so that we can see what he’s capable of.” Philip scrambled to his feet and stood at attention. I rolled my eyes.

“Take him,” I said dully. “Happy fighting. Rah rah, and all that shit.”

They took me back to “my” room, let me shower the blood off, gave me fresh clothes to change into, then left me alone. I didn’t know what time of day it was or how much time had passed since I’d been taken, but I curled up on the narrow bed and fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.

It might have been half an hour or ten hours later that I woke up, but either way I felt fairly rested. I lay there quietly, ignoring my need to pee while I listened, doing my best to get some sort of clue as to where I was.

The place smelled like new paint, but beneath that there was a faint scent of rust and brackish water. My first instinct was to wonder if I was on a ship or barge or something, but if that was the case, I thought that surely I’d be able to feel some sort of motion or rocking, even if it was docked. Instead I could hear and feel an occasional low rumbling, as if a truck was driving by. Great, so I’m close to a road. Yeah, that really narrows it down.

It didn’t matter. The important thing was to break the hell out however I could. Then I could figure out where I was and how to get to safety.

And warn Marcus.

A fierce ache squeezed my chest at the thought of him. I still wasn’t completely certain of my feelings for him, and I knew it was far too soon to think about whether I was in love with him or anything like that. But I did trust him. We had issues to work out, but I was absolutely certain that he would never throw me under the bus. Pietro was the one who’d betrayed me. I didn’t fit into his bigger plan for Marcus and whatever schemes he had going.

I let out a low laugh. His bigger plan was tiddlywinks compared to what Dr. Charish was up to. I couldn’t imagine that he had any idea. He loved his power too much. There’s no way he’d want to have to answer to some government or corporate type.

The light abruptly increased. They knew I was awake. I sat up and raked my fingers through my hair as a guard I didn’t recognize entered with another tray. Brown eyes, mole on his chin. I mentally tallied the number of different faces I’d seen so far. At least half a dozen, plus Philip. Maybe not so low-budget after all?

There was a slice of brain on the tray again, which didn’t fill me with a warm fuzzy feeling. If they were feeding me so much it had to mean that they had more tests or other bullshit planned.

I ate quickly, then attended to my various personal needs. McKinney and two guards came in as I finished and marched me across the hall again. For an instant I thought perhaps it was a different room, because every speck of blood had been cleaned up. But no.

Dr. Charish was on the other side of the big window, of course, as well as two other lab-coated people I hadn’t seen before. The blue-suited man wasn’t there. Beside Dr. Charish was a new observer: mid-forties perhaps, dark-skinned with an angular face, wearing a black suit that was a somewhat nicer cut than blue-suited guy. I got the unmistakable impression that this was who Dr. Charish was working with. Or for. This was who was really interested in this whole super zombie soldier thing.

“Morning, Doc,” I said, baring my teeth at her. “Who’s your new pal?”

“Good morning, Angel,” her voice came through the speaker above me. “I trust you slept well?”

“Like the dead,” I answered.

She chuckled low in her throat. “Funny. Well, let’s see what you can do for us today.”

The door opened. A sick feeling began in my gut that increased to near panic levels as McKinney and a black man in white t-shirt and grey sweat pants walked in.

Clenching my fists by my sides, I watched in helpless rage as McKinney pulled his gun.

“No, not again,” I pleaded. I looked over at the doctor. “I can’t do this again!”

“Well, you’ll need to give it the old college try then.” The doctor’s voice chirped from the speaker. “Oh, wait. You didn’t go to college, did you?”

Fury burned through the sick feeling. I’d never killed anyone in my life, but I was more than ready for her to be the first. “Don’t shoot him,” I pleaded with McKinney. “You don’t have to do that. I swear I’ll try.” I turned to the new dude. “You do know that’s what he was going to do, right? He shot the last guy on the gamble that I could turn him into a zombie.”

The new guy’s expression didn’t shift, but I saw a muscle in his jaw leap. “Yeah,” I continued. “That’s right. You have to die for this to work.”

McKinney lifted his gun, pointed it at my head. “He knows how the soldier program works. Just do it.” Except he slurred the word soldier oddly.

“Wait…are you saying soldier with a Z?” I asked. I laughed despite the horror of the whole situation. “Oh my god, seriously? You’re calling it a ‘Zoldier program’ because it’s zombie soldiers? That has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!”

To my surprise, McKinney shrugged and chuckled, though the gun didn’t waver. “On that I have to agree with you, but unfortunately it wasn’t up to me.”

Jesus, this guy was a fucking psycho with his weird mood swings. Scared the ever living shit out of me. I shot a look toward the window. Black suit dude was scowling. I had a feeling “Zoldiers” had been his idea. Figured. A name that stupid could only come from the government. Besides, if they were with an Evil Corporation, their suits would be nicer.

I took a deep breath and turned back to the new guy. “What’s your name?”

He flicked a glance at McKinney and received a whisper of a nod in response. “Name’s Aaron Wallace, ma’am,” he told me.

“I’m Angel.” And I’m going to be your Angel of Death today, one way or the other, I thought miserably. “You, um, should probably sit down,” I said, waving in the general direction of the wall. I gave a nervous gulp. “I…I’m sorry. This is going to hurt.”

Aaron moved to sit and leaned against the wall, still keeping his back straight and stiff. “It’s all right ma’am. I’ve been injured before.”

I knelt down beside him, met his eyes. I wanted to tell him that he needed to run, get the hell out of here. Tell him that he had no idea what he was getting into. “There’s no going back from this,” I whispered. “There’s no cure.”

He gave me such a sweet smile that it almost brought me to tears. “It’s all right. I’m ready.”

I wished I was.

Taking hold of his shoulders, I leaned over and bit him hard, the same place I’d bitten Philip, right on the meat of muscle of his traps. Aaron let out a soft hiss as I tightened down, but didn’t twitch at all. I bit harder, tasting blood, then released him, swallowed uncertainly, and bit again. C’mon, killer instinct, I silently begged the parasite. I can’t do this on my own. Blood filled my mouth on the third bite. I could feel tears leaking down my cheeks as I tried to pretend I was simply eating a really tough piece of steak and did my best to tear the flesh.

I sat back on my heels and looked up at McKinney. “It’s not working,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “I swear, I’m trying. I swear. Maybe it’s too soon. Let me try some other time. Please!”

McKinney regarded me, mouth twisted in thought. “I’m not ready to quit trying yet. There’s one thing that’s different.” And with that he lifted the gun and shot Aaron twice in the chest, in an almost exact duplicate of the wounds on Philip.

Aaron jerked, eyes wide as he fought to get breath.

“No!” I screamed. “It’s not working. I’m not going to be able to save him!”

“Philip was dying when you tried to turn him,” McKinney replied, utterly calmly. “Perhaps being near death is a requirement. Now, try again.”

I struggled to catch my breath. Could he be right? I’d been close to death when Marcus turned me. And Marcus said he had rabies…but surely he hadn’t been actually dying when Pietro turned him? Would simply having a fatal disease count?

Aaron met my eyes as he fought for breath. Blood bubbled at his mouth, but then he gave me that same sweet smile. How could a seasoned soldier like this be so…innocent? I struggled to give him a smile in response, but I knew it was a sickly effort.

I leaned forward once again and bit down, silently praying with everything I had that this would work. I bit, I chewed, I even forced myself to swallow a small hunk of Aaron’s flesh in case that was what would trigger the mauling instinct.

But the only thing it triggered was nausea, and it wasn’t long before Aaron let out a low sigh of breath and went still.

“Fascinating,” I heard Dr. Charish say. “Though annoying,” she added. “It seems the parasite has a built in population control, which makes sense considering that human brains are a limited resource.”

I got slowly to my feet, turned to face her. I knew I still had blood around my mouth but I didn’t wipe it off. She stood with her hands on her hips, looking between me and Aaron’s body with undisguised impatience and aggravation. The black-suited man didn’t looked very pleased either.

“And how, pray tell,” he asked, “are we supposed to build a unit of Zoldiers if we can’t make more than one?”

“I can fix that,” Dr. Charish snapped. “The limitations are there because of the shortage of food supply. Once the parasite is introduced to the pseudo-brains it should adjust accordingly. I’ve given the new formulation to Philip, and there are none of the issues that were present with the previous batch. Which means we’re in business.” Her gaze went back to me, eyes narrowing. “And which also means that we don’t need to waste resources on this one anymore. Take care of it, McKinney.”

I crumpled as McKinney’s rounds hit me in the chest and stomach. God damn it, I was getting really fucking tired of getting shot. I made sure to fall so I was facing away from the group, though. Because Ed’s brilliant idea was hopefully going to pay off now.

“Do you want me to finish her off?” McKinney asked.

Dr. Charish laughed. “Oh, heavens, no! This is an excellent chance to see how the zombie parasite reacts when it doesn’t have the brains it needs.” I couldn’t see her, but I could practically hear the bitchy smile spreading across her face. “I want to see her rot. Let’s see how cocky she is when her tits are falling off.”

The government guy made a disgusted noise in his throat. “You’re a sick woman, Kristi. But I suppose that’s necessary for this sort of research.”

“Just wait until you’ve been around the zombies for a while,” she said with snort. “Besides, this way if it turns out we still need her, we can just throw some brains at her and she’ll be good as new.” She chuckled. “I can keep her as a test subject forever, if need be.”

And that’s when I stood up.

See, Ed’s idea had been brilliant and disgusting. He was a paramedic who knew anatomy and how to stitch wounds; I was a zombie with the ability to heal without a scar. And the perfect place to hide a stash of brains was, of course, in my abdomen.

McKinney’s stomach shot had actually helped me out by piercing one of the sausage casings of mushed brains that Ed had stuffed inside me—which, for the record, had not been a fun experience at all since anesthesia didn’t work on me. But oh, it was all so worth it now. After being shot I’d had to curl in on myself and do a bit of quick digging to pull the other tubes open and squeeze the brains out before the parasite could repair the damage, but while Dr. Charish and the others were yammering, I was busy getting tanked up to the max—three brains worth. I didn’t even need to eat the brains. The parasite didn’t give a shit how it got what it wanted. This was a sure-shot delivery system.

And I was the motherfucking predator now. I’d felt this way when I’d saved Marcus from being killed by Ed, and it had taken all the will I had to hold back and keep from doing everything I could to stay this way.

But right now I had no intention of holding back. Sweet zombie Jesus, I was fucking invincible.

They could see it, or sense it in their puny little hindbrains. Pure panic filled Dr. Charish’s face, and even McKinney went pale. She stabbed at a button on the keyboard in front of her and an alarm started hooting in the hallway.

My lips curled back from my teeth in a feral grin. “Zombie Super Powers, activate, you fucking bitches.”

I went for McKinney first. Even though I desperately wanted to smash through that window and take down Dr. Charish, I was a smart predator and knew that McKinney was the one who posed an immediate threat to me. Plus, I didn’t want to waste energy on smashing things too soon.

McKinney had enough training to go for the “fight” instead of the “flight,” but it didn’t matter. I got to him before he could squeeze off a shot and wrenched the gun from his hand with an adorably sweet sound of breaking bones. Okay, so I might not have actually pulled the gun from his hand before doing the wrenching.

He was tough—I had to give him that. He let out a choked cry of pain, but a snarl of determination curved his mouth. His other hand was already going for his ankle, where I figured he likely had another weapon.

I punched him hard in that determinedly snarling mouth, crushing lips and teeth. He staggered, but before he could fall I seized him by the side of his head. He tried to swing at me, but I batted it aside easily. I gave him my best evil-predator-bitch smile as he struggled to focus on me.

“Yeah, I’m a zombie, you motherfucker. And I’m also a person.” I slammed his head hard into the window. “I’m a woman.” I slammed it again. “And a daughter.” And again. “And a really fucking cool chick!” Oh what the hell, one last time, for good measure.

I let him drop and grinned at the bloody spiderweb of cracks in the glass. The room beyond the glass was empty and a distant sound of running footsteps echoed along the hall. The predator inside me keened in pleasure. A hunt. This would be fun. But first…

I crouched over the body of McKinney. His skull came apart easily since it was already fairly shattered, and I quickly gulped down the contents. While I ate I yanked off his belt and looped it around my waist. It was far too big but I threaded it through his holster and managed to tie the long end around the buckle so that it wouldn’t fall off. He also had a phone—unfortunately, with no signal. Either we were in the middle of nowhere, or we were in a big metal building. Or both. I clipped that onto the belt as well. I probably looked ridiculous but I didn’t give a shit.

My gaze shifted to the body of Aaron. “Sorry, sweetheart,” I murmured as I smashed his skull against the floor. “Just think of this as me avenging your death.”

After I finished I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. It came away bloody, and I stood. Time for the monster to bust herself out.