White Trash Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter 24

I expected Brian to head to the same lab I’d visited the other day, where I’d seen Kang’s head and met Dr. Nikas, but instead he stopped after about two minutes of driving and pulled up to a loading dock behind an old brick warehouse. It bugged me that the area looked familiar, and it wasn’t until I caught sight of the battered sign by the street that I realized we were on the back end of the building I’d followed Philip to last night, where he’d begged Charish for brains. Damn good thing we’d come here instead of the other lab. I didn’t think Philip could tolerate a long drive, and apparently Brian thought the same.

Brian parked and came around to open the rear passenger door as I finished stuffing the last of the brains into Philip’s mouth.

“Let’s go, Philip,” I said. “We’re going inside. We’ll fix you up.”

He managed a tight nod, pain flashing across his face from even that small movement. I quickly unbuckled him, then helped him out of the SUV with Brian’s assistance. Philip didn’t growl at him, which was damn good since I didn’t know enough about the bite thing to be sure it would work again to calm him down.

As soon as Philip was somewhat steady Brian backed off and led the way to the back door. It was opened before he reached it by the door security guy from last night, so apparently we were expected.

“That’s it,” I murmured to the very unsteady Philip, keeping an arm around him. “Almost there.”

Brian led the way inside and down a short hallway to a small room with lab equipment and a single computer workstation. Two narrow mattresses, obviously dragged in from elsewhere, dominated the floor space.

I glanced up at Philip’s face as we walked. My gut clenched at the rigor of pain and concentration I saw there. Every movement was agonizing, yet he suffered in silence.

“Angel,” Brian said, “if you can get him on a mattress, that would be ideal.”

I gave him a quick nod to acknowledge I’d heard. “Okay, Philip, darlin’,” I said, maneuvering him to the nearest mattress. “I need you to lie down now, and then you can be nice and still, okay?”

He sank to the mattress, knees buckling at the end and near-collapsing the last foot or so. A wrenching cry of despair that was echoed in his eyes nearly broke my heart. I lay down beside him, keeping as much contact along his side as I could without putting pressure on him that might cause more pain.

A few seconds later I heard low voices and footsteps from the hallway we’d entered through, and then Heather and Dan appeared, practically carrying Kyle between them. His head lolled but his eyes were open, and he seemed to be trying his damndest to make his legs work well enough to walk. Heather gave me a quick wink, then helped Dan get Kyle settled onto the other mattress.

“Do you need brains?” Dan asked Kyle, but the other man shook his head in a drunken gesture.

“Strange,” Kyle slurred. “Not hungry. At all.”

Dan’s mouth pressed tight. “Not normal tranq, that’s for sure.”

“The mods did nothing,” Kyle continued, obviously focusing heavily on speaking as clearly as possible, with only partial success. “Knocked me down in seconds.”

Mods? That must have something to do with why he was surprised the tranq affected him. Some sort of antidote maybe? I turned my head toward them. “I got hit with that stuff the other night,” I said quietly in order to not disturb Philip. “It takes some time to wear off. The non-hunger, that is. Brains’ll be gross for a while.”

Dan glanced at me. “Good to know.” He looked back to Kyle. “You hear that? Just gotta wait it out.”

“Got it,” Kyle muttered. His hands and feet kept twitching, and it took me several seconds to realize he was consciously moving his fingers and toes in order to get his motor control back faster. The fact that he was awake but still without full motor control seemed odd to me. I’d been knocked out, yet as soon as I woke I was able to drive and move around with no trouble. Did it have something to do with the mods he’d mentioned? Perhaps he had an adverse reaction?

Philip tremored beside me, breath hissing between his teeth. I kept a hand on his shoulder while I let my gaze roam around the room, taking it all in. Heather sat beside Kyle’s mattress with a hand on his arm. Dan stood by the wall, arms folded over his chest, watching, and I had the feeling he was primed and ready to respond to anything that came up. The door guard fiddled with a computer that showed the outside surveillance camera feeds, and Rachel checked out the monitor over his shoulder. With the mattresses taking up much of the floor space, the small room was downright crowded.

A soft intake of breath from the doorway drew my attention. Dr. Kristi Fucking Charish stood there, a look of slight surprise on her face as she registered my presence.

I felt my lips pull back from my teeth in a snarl of hatred. Pietro had told me he had this bitch under his control, but she looked pretty goddamn uncontrolled to me.

Slowly, I lifted my hand and gave her the finger. Her face instantly shifted from surprise to practiced coolness. Her gaze went from me to Philip. A flicker of distaste passed over her features, sliding to a smirk of satisfaction as she looked back to me. She held my gaze for several seconds, then turned away and moved out of sight.

What the hell did that bitch have to look satisfied about? Before I could wonder about it much more, Brian came back in, a frown tugging at his mouth.

“Dr. Nikas is on his way, and there are too many people in here,” he announced. “Dan, Rachel, wait outside but stay close.”

The two quickly complied. I gave Brian a puzzled look but held my questions. His gaze flicked to Heather and then to me. I half expected him to ask the two of us to leave, and I tensed for an argument since there was no damn way I was leaving Philip right now. But apparently Brian figured we were doing more good than harm. He moved to me and crouched.

“Dr. Nikas doesn’t do well in crowds,” he explained in a low voice. His eyes went to Philip, and sympathetic anger flared behind them, then he stood, turned, and went to one knee beside Kyle.

Heather looked up at Brian, gave Kyle’s arm a little squeeze. “He’s still not able to move much, though it does seem to be wearing off.”

Brian’s head dipped in a small nod. “We don’t know what was used or how it interacts with Kyle’s mods,” he said, “so it may simply take more time. I can’t see Saberton using anything that would permanently harm a useful zombie.”

Philip shuddered beside me. “Charish…would…did,” he rasped out, voice thick with pain.

I looked back to him. “She’s a fucking bitch,” I muttered.

His nostrils suddenly flared, and he let out a low ominous growl. He shifted, pushing up on his arms, half-twisting to face the open doorway. He knew she was there. Could smell her or something. I felt the fury roiling through him and had no doubt that, despite the pain, he’d rip her to pieces if he could get his hands on her.

I wrapped my arms around him from behind and sank my teeth into his shoulder again, though there was a nasty part of me that wanted to leave him be and wish him good hunting. Oops, couldn’t control him. Sorry! However, the practical side of me knew I might not be able to bring him back down after he rage-shredded Charish, and I didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt.

But Philip wasn’t as easily subdued this time. He managed to push up to his knees while I clung to his back and bit harder. I sensed Brian near and ready to act in case I couldn’t bring Philip under control, but to my relief, after a few seconds, Philip let out a low moan and sank down to lie on his belly.

“Was fine,” he rasped, breathing harshly. “Was good. Strong after you turned me. She did this…to me.”

I let out a low growl of understanding, then released the bite and licked at the sluggishly bleeding wound. Still not gross, I thought idly. Too weird. I remained partially atop him—not that my piddling weight would slow him down if he went off again, but the physical contact seemed to keep him a bit calmer, though he still jerked and twitched.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dr. Nikas enter followed by Jacques, the pale tech who’d taken my blood at the other lab. Dr. Nikas paused as he took in the sights, and probably scents and sounds as well. He went to Kyle first, knelt by the mattress and placed a hand in the center of the stricken man’s chest. “How is it?” he asked. “Movement returning?”

“Slowly,” Kyle replied. “Very slowly.”

Dr. Nikas gave a small nod. “I suspect they hit you with the new tranq, but if you feel stable, I’m going to go take care of Philip.”

“I’m stable enough,” Kyle said, to my relief. “Tend to him.”

Dr. Nikas stood and moved to us, eyes going first to the deep bite marks on Philip’s shoulder as he knelt. I shifted off to Philip’s other side, and Dr. Nikas placed a hand in the center of his back. “Philip, can you hear me?” he asked.

“I can…hear you, Dr. Nikas,” he gasped out, then squeezed his eyes shut. “Please. End this. Please.” His voice cracked horribly on the last word.

“I will,” Dr. Nikas replied, calmly and firmly. He met my eyes, and to my relief I saw full confidence that he could help Philip, and that he intended Philip’s death to be an utter last resort. “Let’s get you to your back first,” he told Philip, and with my help we got him turned over on the mattress. Dr. Nikas looked at Jacques and rattled off some instructions that included words like “red-topped stabilizers” and “large bore eye-vee” and “five hundred mill normal saline.”

Jacques hurried off to comply with the instructions, and Dr. Nikas returned his gaze to me. “Angel, are you willing to stay with Philip for a short time?”

“Totally,” I said. “But can someone call Marcus and let him and my dad know I’m okay and might be a while?”

Dr. Nikas glanced at Brian, who gave a nod.

“I’m on it,” he said, pulling out his phone as he stepped into the hallway to make the call.

Jacques returned and set up an IV with several bags flowing into the tube thingy in Philip’s arm.

I frowned. “How do you keep his body from healing up around the IV?”

Jacques didn’t look up from his adjustments. “Needle and catheter have a camouflaging coating that keeps the parasite from reacting to it. Dr. Nikas’s development.” He stuck three patches on Philip’s chest and switched on the heart monitor, then stood and retreated to the computer workstation.

Dr. Nikas filled a syringe from a vial and injected it into the saline bag. “Philip, as soon as this bag finishes, I’m going to set up a drip of a new formulation. It’ll take a couple of hours, but let me know immediately if it makes anything worse.”

“Yes, sir,” Philip murmured, eyes already drifting closed. “Thank you.” He already seemed to be better, and I had to hope it wasn’t simply my wishful thinking.

Dr. Nikas stood and returned to Kyle. Carefully, he picked up the container holding the dart that had struck him. “Excellent, Kyle,” he said. “This will give us a cleaner sample to analyze and hopefully a better idea of how this tranquilizer operates.”

Heather’s lips twitched. “Way to take one for the team, Kyle. We can tell everyone you got tranqed on purpose.”

Kyle muttered something I couldn’t hear, but I had no doubt the gist of it involved curse words.

Dr. Nikas gave Kyle’s shoulder an absent pat, then turned and headed toward the doorway, expression hardening.

I had no shame, and I quickly grabbed one of the packets of brains Dan had left for me and sucked it down. I was pretty sure Dr. Nikas was about to confront Charish, and I wanted some super zombie hearing right about now.

It kicked in barely in time.

“Tell me what happened to Philip,” I heard Dr. Nikas say in a calm, even voice. Lucky for me, Charish had apparently been lurking just beyond the doorway. No wonder Philip had nearly lost it.

“I don’t know. He’s always been unstable,” Charish replied, and even though I couldn’t see her I had no trouble picturing the frown laced with the perfect amount of professional concern.

“What happened when he came here last night?” Dr. Nikas asked.

“Oh my god! Can you believe he showed up here?” she said, outrage thick in her voice. She huffed out a breath. “Begging, no less. He wasted all the supplies you’d left for him and claimed he was starving. I gave him some simply to get him to leave and keep from totally compromising us.”

Dr. Nikas remained quiet for a few seconds before asking, “Why in god’s name did you not give him more?” My zombie super-hearing picked up footfalls, and I easily pictured him stepping closer to her. “Did you think he was lying about being hungry? That perhaps he sold the brains I gave him on the street like pain meds?”

He didn’t sound so calm anymore.

“No!” Charish said. “He obviously wasn’t rationing properly. I gave him two, and Saberton fed him as well. He simply had to hold it together for a couple of days, that’s all.” She made an aggrieved sound. “Why would I waste valuable resources on a stupid zombie grunt, and an expendable one at that?”

Holy fucking shit, I thought, stunned, She did NOT just say that!

“Stupid…zombie…grunt?” Dr. Nikas bit the words out, and the anger in his voice sounded utterly foreign coming from him. “You call a highly skilled man who volunteered for extremely hazardous duty, suffered your botched efforts, and who managed to endure agony and extreme hunger without undue complaint a stupid zombie grunt?”

I heard a clatter, and I figured Dr. Nikas had backed her into a counter or something.

“I…I don’t understand,” Charish said, for the first time sounding a little afraid and genuinely perplexed. “You were going to terminate him tomorrow. And…volunteered? What do you mean? For what?”

“Terminate?” Utter astonishment laced the word. “I never had any intention of terminating him! You don’t terminate your own people!” Dr. Nikas drew a shaking breath, obviously struggling for calm. “Why did you give the accelerant instead of stabilizer?”

“I didn’t!” she cried.

“You are lying,” he said through clenched teeth. “The two are kept in separate locations, look completely different from each other. Tell me why you sent an operative back into the field with a substance that could damage him and his mission.”

“I thought he was just a mule,” she replied, voice cracking in a way that told me she had tears going on now. Bitch. I glanced around the room to see that I wasn’t the only one carefully eavesdropping. Brian stood by the wall, arms folded over his chest and eyes closed, but his jaw was clenched so tightly I thought he might break a tooth. Kyle’s eyes were on the doorway, brow ever so slightly furrowed. He probably wasn’t tanked up to where he could hear it all, but enough to get the gist.

“I didn’t know he was an operative, I swear,” Charish continued, crying now. “You said you were going to ‘take care of him,’ and I thought you meant kill him.” She sniffled. “Ari, I was so tired that night, and upset that he’d come to the lab. Anyone could have followed him!”

Like me. Bitch.

“Because you thought him to be an expendable grunt, you chose to punish him. For a brilliant woman, you are remarkably stupid,” Dr. Nikas said, voice tight. “Brian,” he called.

Brian pushed off the wall, face instantly composed into a neutral mask that completely hid that he’d heard everything and how pissed he was. He moved to the doorway. “Yes, sir?”

“Remove Dr. Charish from these premises until a decision can be made as to her…disposition.” He paused, and I heard Charish suck in a shocked breath. “And in the meantime,” he continued, “she is to have no more than three hundred calories a day.”

“Ari! No!” Charish gasped while I silently cheered. Three hundred calories a day? I knew damn well Dr. Nikas ordered that so Charish would get a hint of what real hunger felt like.

“Yes, sir,” Brian replied evenly. “Secure cell, sir?” he added, emphasizing the word “cell” a bit, and I had no doubt he’d done so simply to fuck with her.

“Most definitely,” Dr. Nikas replied.

“No, Ari…oh god. Please! You can’t do this. Pietro will…oh, god.” She was crying for real now, which surprised me. She struck me as the type to go cold and shut down. Maybe the thought of what Pietro would do scared the ice right out of her.

“I made the grievous error of trusting you with my interests,” Dr. Nikas said with undisguised reproach in his voice. “I will not do so again.”

I heard a muffled whimper, and then Brian said, “This way, Dr. Charish.” A few seconds later he came through the doorway, escorting her with a firm grip on her upper arm. Her hands had been secured behind her back with zip-ties, I noted as they passed. I didn’t bother to hide the fact that I openly watched her be escorted out. No one in the room was hiding it, Philip included.

Halfway to the exit, she began to struggle and tried to pull away from Brian. “No. No! This isn’t right!”

Brian visibly tightened his grip, fingers digging in. “Walk or be dragged.”

She let out a low cry. “You’re hurting me,” she said, stumbling forward again. “Ari didn’t say to hurt me.”

“He didn’t have to,” was his utterly calm reply as they exited. A few seconds later the outer door clanged shut.

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer person,” I muttered.

Philip made a low noise. Shifting up onto one elbow, I peered down at him. “Is it getting any better?” I asked quietly.

“Really dizzy…all of a sudden,” he said, voice definitely sounding more clear than earlier.

“Dr. Nikas?” I called.

He stepped into the doorway, and I was shocked to see that he looked anguished. He liked Dr. Charish, I realized with a start. Or at least he had before today.

I had a hard time wrapping my head around the kind and gentle Dr. Nikas finding anything at all appealing about that woman, but obviously there’d been something there. He’d called her brilliant. Had that been it?

Straightening his shoulders, he moved to Philip’s side and crouched. “What is it?”

“He says he’s really dizzy all of a sudden,” I told him.

Dr. Nikas checked the IV and monitoring devices, looked into Philip’s eyes. “Other than the dizziness, better or worse overall?”

“Thinking clearer. Pain’s easing some too, maybe,” Philip said. “Hard to tell, but I don’t think it hurts quite so much.”

“All of your vitals look good,” Dr. Nikas said with an encouraging smile. “I’m going to slow the drip down a bit, and I’ve started a mild sedative. If you can sleep, do so. It will be a few hours until you’re back to your normal level of stability.”

Philip managed a whisper of a smile. “I’m more than ready to sleep. Thanks for having my back.” He took a deeper breath. “I’m sorry, Dr. Nikas. For all this. Two days ago, Saberton cut out all real brains for me…and Tim and Roland. Only gave us their current alternative. I wouldn’t eat them, didn’t dare,” he said. “I used up everything you’d left for me, then was starving. Should have signaled. Wasn’t thinking straight and got desperate.”

“Understandable,” Dr. Nikas said. “We’ll take good care of you now. I’m sorry you didn’t get what you needed when you came here last night.” He gave Philip’s shoulder a light squeeze, then looked over at me. “Angel, may I speak with you a moment?”

I glanced down at Philip. The corner of his mouth twitched in a mild tic, but the general tremors had stopped, and he almost almost looked at peace. I checked in with my zombie-mama intuition, but it seemed to agree and didn’t urge me to stay by his side. Giving a nod to Dr. Nikas, I pulled a blanket over Philip, then stood and followed him as he passed through the doorway, down the hall, and finally into a small office.

He closed the door behind us and opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it.

“Why didn’t y’all put a stop to the testing Saberton was doing?” I asked, frowning. “Those people didn’t volunteer. That fake zombie shit really fucked them up. A woman died because of it.”

He let out a low sigh. “We were working on it, Angel. That was part of the reason Philip was undercover with them.”

My eyes narrowed. “Working on it? Really?” I liked Dr. Nikas, but that didn’t mean I was going to let this slide. “It looked more like Philip was undercover to steal their results and pass them to y’all.”

Dr. Nikas exhaled and rubbed at his eyes. “Yes, but part of what he passed to us were details that we hoped would help us undermine their operation as a whole, not merely that small segment.” He dropped his hand, expression pained. “The research was happening whether I liked it or not. To refuse to use the data for some misguided moral reason and leave it to Saberton exclusively would be…irresponsible.”

I fell silent for a moment. The low tick of a clock on the wall seemed to reverberate through the small room while I tried to make everything fit into a pattern I could handle. “Was it useful?” I finally asked, voice low. “The data—was it worth it?”

He gave a grave nod. “Every bit of data, every sample helps. I know the direction they’re going with their research and have projects underway based on it and to counter it. Invaluable.” But then he shook his head, looking suddenly weary. “Was it worth the death of Brenda Barnes? No. She was an innocent.”

Dr. Nikas knew the name of the woman who’d died as part of that horrible research. That, along with everything else I’d seen of him, convinced me that he actually did give a shit. I blew out my breath. “I guess Philip’s meltdown put an end to that project anyway. At least for now.”

A faint smile touched his mouth. “Yes. Not at all in the way I’d hoped to extract him, but they will be disrupted for a time.” His eyes met mine. “He needs much care. You were kind enough to give me a small sample of blood at the main lab the other day,” he said. “Would you consider giving a pint? It could be crucial in developing a more effective stabilizer for Philip.”

He already had samples of my blood; I couldn’t see any harm in giving him more. “Sure thing.”

“I’m not certain yet if it will help,” he cautioned, “but I’d prefer to have it on hand as I work with his issues.”

“If there’s a chance it’ll help Philip, I’ll do it,” I replied, then frowned. “What about the two others—the ones Philip turned? Tim Bell and Roland Westfeld.”

He exhaled. “I haven’t had a chance to fully determine the nature of their condition,” he explained. “How they were converted was…perverse, and I don’t know yet if their damage can be reversed or even stabilized.” His brow creased. “And they are Saberton men.”

“They stood and watched me get strip searched,” I said quietly, looking away. “Maybe it makes me an awful person, but I guess I don’t have much sympathy for them right now.” I sighed and looked back to him. “But I really do hope you can do something good for Philip.”

Dr. Nikas nodded slowly. “Before those two were so poorly converted, their view of zombies was likely much in line with Dr. Charish’s—occasionally useful second-class citizens.” His mouth tightened, and he shook his head. “Pietro will make the final decision on what happens to them based on my assessment. As for Philip, yes, I can help him to at least not be in continuous pain, and to curb the unnatural hunger. In time, I may discover a way to fully reverse the damage. Your blood will help.”

I considered all that in silence for a moment. The two men were seriously damaged. They didn’t seem to have the same degree of pain issues that Philip had, but they were unstable and bitey as hell. I definitely saw how dangerous it was to have them roaming around with such screwed up parasites. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like they’d converted any others into messed up zombies. Maybe the parasite was too damaged to spawn. But isn’t condemning them to death for being “too damaged” treating them like second class citizens and less than human?

There were no easy answers, that much was for sure.

I tugged a hand through my hair, then looked up at Dr. Nikas, brow furrowed. “Why did Philip calm down when I bit him?”

It was his turn to go quiet for a moment. “Technically he shouldn’t have,” he finally said.

That only confused me more. “What does that mean? I don’t even know why I did it. It just felt…right.”

Dr. Nikas drew a breath, hesitated, then shook his head and spread his hands. “It is a characteristic that should not manifest in a young zombie.”

I regarded him as steadily as I could. “And what does that mean?”

He met my eyes with one of those I’m-ancient-as-all-hell gazes that I’d received a time or two from Pietro. “It means that I have never seen a zombie less than five hundred years old with the instinct and ability to inflict a control bite.”

I gaped as I tried to get the implications of this tidbit of info to fit into my world view. First off, that meant there were zombies over five hundred years old, likely including Dr. Nikas. And Pietro. I’d known zombies had the potential to live a long time, but having an actual number from someone who no doubt knew the truth blew my mind.

But even that seemed minor compared to the fact that, somehow, little ol’ not-even-a-year-old zombie me was able to do some zombie judo hold that normally only Grand Poobah Zombies could do. What the hell did that mean for me?

Dr. Nikas pushed off the counter, gave me a sad little smile. “We can talk about this more later. If you’re still willing, I’ll have Jacques take your blood, and then Brian can drive you home.”

Home. Right. Wherever the hell that was. “Sure thing,” I replied numbly.

He gave me a small nod, then turned and left me alone with my roiling thoughts.