How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back

Chapter 25

“I think we’re clear,” I said, peering behind us. Or rather, I couldn’t see, hear, or smell anyone in pursuit. We’d been fleeing for close to half an hour, taking turns as Naomi directed and blindly trusting that she knew where the hell to go. I wasn’t even sure we were in New York anymore, but Naomi insisted that a hatch we’d passed about a minute earlier was close to the Lincoln Center.

Philip looked back and gave a nod. “I agree.” He carefully set Naomi on her good foot and helped her to sit on the floor of the tunnel.

I pointed to a spot that looked fairly clean. “You. Sit,” I ordered Andrew. A wave of queasiness shuddered through me as he complied, and barely a second later Philip turned, stumbled several steps away and retched.

“You okay, Philip?” I asked as I did my best to keep my own nausea from showing on my face. It had to be the MegaPlague imprint shit if I felt it as well. A few seconds later my queasiness faded, and Philip straightened, wiping his mouth.

“I’m fine now,” he said, voice strong. I glanced at him as he returned to us. His eyes looked hollow, but he was doing his best to maintain a tough façade in front of Andrew.

I turned and crouched by Naomi. “We need to get your boot off before your ankle swells too much.”

“Right.” She clenched her hands into fists as I loosened the laces and removed the boot as carefully as possible.

“Oh, man.” I winced at the sight of the mottled purple bloat that was her ankle. “That looks pretty awful.”

“That’s a great bedside manner you have there,” she said with a strained laugh.

“Sorry. My patients are usually dead.” I resisted the urge to poke at the swelling. “It looks bad, but I don’t think it’s broken.” Not that I had a clue, but I didn’t want her even more worried. “I think the boot saved you from fucking it up more,” I added. Felt weird not to say, Chug some brains, and you’ll be right as rain!

“Can’t walk on it either way,” she said with a black scowl. “God! This is stupid.”

“Yeah, I’m usually the one to do stupid shit like this,” I said and gave her a crooked smile. “Why the hell are you stealing my thunder?”

She tried to smile back, but her face twisted instead. I knew it wasn’t because of pain.

I lowered my voice. “We’ll get Kyle back. I promise.”

She bit her lip and nodded. “He’s tough. He’ll . . . be okay until we get there.”

“Of course he will.” Neither of us wanted to speak the truth. He was a former operative for Saberton, and even though he hadn’t sold them out, it was doubtful they’d see it that way. It was tough to kill a zombie, but it was easy to torture one.

“We need to call Brian so we can get out of this mess,” I told her.

She nodded, pulled her phone out of a pocket and hit the speed dial for Brian’s number. A few seconds later she frowned and shook her head. “Straight to voicemail. He must have it off.”

“Try my number,” I suggested.

She gave me a puzzled look, then grimaced and nodded. “Right. I forgot he had yours and you have Kyle’s.” She made an annoyed noise as she hit the speed dial for my phone. “Damn, I’m really off my game.”

“Gimme a break,” I replied, a little sharply. “No one who’s off their game could’ve managed that awesome bootlegger turn and remembered all the twists in these tunnels.”

A corner of her mouth twitched up as she held the phone to her ear. “Yeah, that was all right.” But a few seconds later she lowered the phone and shook her head. “Straight to voicemail.”

“Shit,” I muttered. “Maybe it ran out of charge.”

“Both of them?” Naomi said, brows puckered.

“Who the hell knows,” I replied. “Doesn’t matter. I still know where and when to meet him. It’s possible he turned the phones off for security.”

Andrew shifted and made a low noise in the back of his throat.

I shot him a glare. “You got a fucking problem?”

He glared right back. “I need to take a piss,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Oh.” I blinked, then looked over at Philip. “Um, can you take care of that?”

Philip’s lips twitched, and I knew he was resisting the urge to suggest I “handle” it, and only because it was probably poor form to joke and tease around a hostage. But just knowing he wanted to joke helped lighten my own mood a tiny bit.

Philip helped Andrew to his feet and walked him down the tunnel until they were lost in the gloom. Naomi let out a shuddering breath, gaze following the pair.

“He doesn’t know me,” she murmured, an odd combination of grief and amazement playing over her face. “This close, and he doesn’t know me.”

“You don’t look or sound like his sister,” I reminded her. “Not to mention, he thinks his sister is dead. He’s not expecting to run into her.” I punched her lightly in the arm. “Especially not in a sewer.”

“It’s a steam tunnel, not a sewer.”

“Whatever. It has bugs and rats, and it smells funny.”

She let out a choked laugh, but tears welled up in her eyes. “I was holding it together right up until now.” She dashed away the tears and looked up at me. “I don’t know if I can keep hiding myself from him.”

I grimaced. “Babe, you have to. At least until we’re safe.”

She blew out her breath and visibly composed herself. “Right. And it would be a shame to waste all this plastic surgery.”

“Absolutely.” I reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. “We can’t risk your mother finding out you’re still alive.”

Naomi shuddered at the thought. “No way. She’s—” She stopped as I held up my hand at the sound of returning footsteps. A few seconds later Philip and Andrew stepped from the shadows.

“Everything cool?” I asked as I stood.

Philip nodded then sat Andrew down about ten feet away from Naomi, making sure to position him so the light was between them. With Naomi mostly in shadow, it would be almost impossible for Andrew to see more than a vague shape. No need to give him more opportunity to recognize her.

I motioned for Philip to come with me farther down the tunnel. “I need to go meet Brian,” I said in a low voice as soon as we were out of human earshot. “Everything will be easier once we hook up with him, and then we can get Naomi’s ankle taken care of properly.”

A frown creased his forehead. “I don’t like you going out alone.”

“I know,” I said. “But with Kyle gone, we can’t let Andrew go free. We have to hold onto him as a possible ace in the hole if we want to stand a chance of getting back in to rescue Pietro and Kyle.”

“And with Naomi injured, someone needs to stay with her and keep an eye on him.” He grimaced. “I’m getting worse. The weakness is constant now, and when it flares I can barely lift my head.”

“That’s why I want to go sooner rather than later.”

He obviously wasn’t happy about it, but he didn’t continue to argue. “All right. Make sure we have a way to get him,” he jerked a thumb toward Andrew, “out and to wherever Brian and Dr. Nikas are, without too much of a scene.”

“Andrew’s trouble waiting to happen,” I said. “Probably need to secure him more and have a gag ready in case anyone happens to come down this way.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Philip sent a chilling look in Andrew’s direction.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

He pulled me into a hug. “You be careful, you hear me?”

I returned the hug, let the comfort of it peel away a bit of the worry and stress. “You know me. I’m always careful.”

“Let’s not go there.” He gave me a squeeze then released me and dug in the side pocket of his pants to produce a map of Manhattan. “You’ll probably need this.”

“Y’think?” I smiled. “Now you can double down on your awesomeness by showing me where I’m meeting Brian and which trains to take.”

He chuckled softly, then spread the map against the wall and patiently showed me exactly where to go and how to get there. To my relief there was no need for me to change trains or anything that would stretch my redneck brain.

“Now get going,” he said. He folded the map again—successfully, which amazed me—and stuffed it into my side pocket. “I’ll hold down the fort.”

With a parting smile, I turned and loped off down the tunnel to the Lincoln Center hatch.