White Trash Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter 7

The autopsy of Brenda Barnes went quickly, though Dr. Leblanc remained puzzled about the cause of death despite knowing what had killed her: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which was a condition where the heart muscle got too thick to pump blood properly, he’d explained. What he couldn’t figure out was how the heck she could’ve had that condition, since her medical records showed absolutely no sign of any thickening whatsoever in a full physical she had right before being laid off only a year earlier.

Muttering about misread test results and sloppy record keeping, he returned to the main building in the late afternoon, leaving me free to finally scarf down some brains to appease the insistent waves of hunger. I peeled up the gauze and tugged the sutures out of my healed flesh since they itched like crazy now, then taped the gauze back down. Later I’d figure out how to keep Allen from wanting to check it in a few days. Oh yeah, and figure out some way to explain why it healed without a scar. Maybe I could buy some miracle scar cream and claim it did the trick. I groaned and resisted the urge to beat my head against the cooler wall.

After making absolutely sure I was alone in the morgue, I retrieved an empty container from my cooler and “harvested” the brain of Ms. Barnes. During an autopsy the organs—including the brain—were removed, examined, and samples taken to be stored in formalin. Yet afterward, the organs weren’t returned to their former body cavity but instead ended up in a big plastic bag that was set between the body’s legs for its trip to the funeral home. Therefore, once the autopsy was complete, I snagged the brains out of the bags for my own consumption.

In fact, that’s how I’d met Kang. He’d confronted me after he noticed that the brains were missing from the body bags when they arrived at his funeral home.

I got the container safely tucked away in my cooler and back in my car without incident. The rest of my shift was blissfully dull with only one other body pickup—an apparently natural death of a man with a history of heart disease who showed all the signs of a heart attack. Once he was in the cooler and logged into the system, Derrel and I grabbed a bite to eat at Paco’s Tacos, then I returned to the morgue and managed to squeeze in several hours of studying. When midnight finally rolled around, I clocked out, left the van keys in the box by the door, and got the heck out of there.

Lightning followed by a tooth-rattling crash of thunder heralded the start of another goddamn downpour. I dashed to my scrappy little Honda, yanked the door open and clambered in. It sure as hell wasn’t worth much on the open market, but it ran—most of the time—and right now it scored points for being dry.

I jammed my keys into the ignition and cranked the car. Hunger—the normal human kind—reminded me that, though I’d gorged on tacos at seven, it was now after midnight. What the hell. A late night snack never hurt anyone. There wasn’t a whole lot open at this hour, but the flickering neon of Double D’s Diner promised destressifying pie and hot chocolate, plus the parking lot had only three other cars in it. Score.

The rain still pelted down in torrential sheets. I clutched my dorky raincoat around me, pulled down my hood, and made a dash for the slim awning over the door, then scowled blackly as the rain abruptly eased to a mere drizzle.

“Really?” I snarled up at the sky. “You couldn’t ease up thirty seconds earlier?”

I shook the worst of the water off and entered the diner, hung my raincoat on a peg beside two normal-yellow ones and a bedraggled umbrella, then headed to the counter. The waitress slid a mug of hot chocolate and a plate full of apple pie to me as soon as I sat down.

“You know me too damn well, Lurline,” I said with a laugh.

The rangy, well-worn woman grinned. “I know how you are when you get off work in the middle of the night.” She leaned her elbows on the counter. “Anything good today?” she asked with a gleam in her eye.

“Sorry,” I told her. “Only one today and there was no mess or yuck of any sort. Very ordinary natural death.”

She heaved a disappointed sigh and pushed off the counter. “How’m I supposed to live vay-car-ee-us-lee through you if you don’t got any good stories?”

I laughed. “I’ll make up something good and gory for the next time I come in here.”

“You better!” she announced, then sauntered away to check on another customer.

Grinning, I dug into my pie and allowed the loving embrace of sugar and fat to shield me from my worries. I glanced around idly as I ate. The old, bald guy at the far end of the counter was another regular, and a young couple nestled in a booth, laughing and whispering as they shared a heaping plate of blueberry pancakes.

Through the broad windows of the diner I saw a Jeep pull into the lot and park, angled with the passenger side toward me. But the headlights remained on, and no one made a move to get out for almost a full minute. Finally the driver exited and moved to the back. Though she wore a light jacket with the hood up, I could tell it was a woman by the general build and grace of movement. She opened the hatch, huddling beneath it to stay out of the light drizzle as she rummaged through the contents as if looking for something.

But my heart did a weird little flip when she straightened and pushed the hood back from her face. It was her. The stalker blonde.

She didn’t have a camera in her hands, however, and after a few seconds of frantic thought I decided she probably hadn’t followed me here. First off, I figured she’d be a little more sneaky about it if she had. Plus, the expression on her face was a far cry from the calm focus I saw earlier today. Even from this distance it was tough to mistake the expression of worry and anxiety.

She’d parked on the other side of the diner from my car, so there was a damn good chance she had no idea I was here. Perfect time to find out what the hell’s going on. I dropped a ten on the counter to more than cover my coffee and pie, slung my purse across my chest and headed out, grabbing my obnoxious raincoat on the way. Sure, without it I’d probably have an easier time getting close before she realized it was me, but I really didn’t want to get wet. Yeah, I was a weenie.

I strode toward the Jeep with my hood up and purpose in my step. With the way she was parked I came up on the driver’s side, which was fine with me. Hopefully that would make it easier to stop her if she tried to make a run for it.

She was still doing something in the back, but the sound of crunching gravel beneath my boots alerted her to my approach. She ducked her head around the side of the Jeep, eyes widening in surprise at the sight of me.

“Hey! You! I wanna talk to you!” I snarled.

Alarm flashed across her features, then in a smooth move she stepped from behind the Jeep, pulled a shotgun from the back and brought it up to hip level to point at me.

I jerked to a stop, still about a dozen feet from her. Well shit, I thought in surprise and a bit of annoyance. This escalated quickly. With the way her Jeep was angled, no one inside the diner could see the shotgun. They’d certainly hear the blast, though that wouldn’t do me much good.

“Just back off,” the blond woman said, tension roiling through her voice. Yet even though the barrel of the shotgun didn’t waver, she really didn’t look as if she wanted to shoot me. At all. On the other hand, she also looked scared and freaked and a little desperate, and I knew that sort of emotion-soup could easily overcome any reluctance to pull the trigger. Her left hand steadied the barrel, and my eyes narrowed. She had a splint on that hand that I was pretty damn sure hadn’t been there when I saw her earlier today.

I shook my head slowly. “I’m not gonna back off until you tell me what the hell’s going on, and why you’re following me and taking pictures.”

“Because it was my job,” she said, voice tight and full of desperate intensity. “But I’m not taking any more pics. I’m leaving.” Her grip on the shotgun tightened. “So…back off.”

I remained exactly where I was. “No. Not backing off.” I kept my own voice as calm as I could manage. “What job do you have that includes stalking me?”

She edged toward the driver’s side door. “One I quit,” she said. “And I have to get out of here.”

Watching her carefully, I took a slow step forward. “I’m not afraid of getting shot,” I told her. Which wasn’t entirely true. Getting shot hurt, and I had a feeling getting shot by a shotgun would hurt a lot. But I knew damn well something more was going on. “You haven’t answered my question.”

“Please. I don’t want to shoot you!” she said, desperation thickening her voice now. “I have to go.” Her eyes flicked toward the highway and back to me. Was someone after her?

“Look, are you into something fucked up?” I asked, easing forward another step. Probably a stupid question, now that I thought about it, since she was holding a shotgun on me. “Maybe I can help,” I added. Hell, I knew that I’m so screwed look on her face. I’d seen it on my own a time or two.

A brief spark of hope flickered in her eyes, but then she shook her head and it died. “Yeah, really a twisted mess,” she said. To my relief she lowered the shotgun. “I…won’t shoot you. But, please, I have to go.” Her voice quavered. “The people I worked for, they’ll be coming after me. And you don’t want to be around when that happens.”

Was she concerned for me? Or for what I might see or find out? “First, tell me who you work for,” I said.

“Worked for,” she replied, emphasizing the past tense. She edged closer to the driver’s door. I knew damn well she was about to make a break for it, and I tensed in expectation.

“Yeah, fine, who did you work for?” I shot back, allowing my annoyance to color my tone.

As expected, she made an absolutely desperate attempt to yank the door open and get into the Jeep. I poured on the speed and closed the distance between us, grabbed the door handle as she slid into the seat, and blocked the door with my own body.

“For fuck’s sake!” I snapped. “Would you chill? I want some answers, and I’m not letting you go until you give them!”

She breathed raggedly, seeming on the verge of tears and, with the fierce strength that burned behind her hazel eyes, it looked utterly unnatural on her. She tugged futilely on the door a few times as if it would somehow convince me to move, then gave up and let her hand drop. “Shit. Shit.”

I swept a quick glance around. No one inside the diner seemed to notice our little altercation—helped no doubt by the fact it was all happening on the side away from the broad windows. And the highway remained deserted.

“Can we please talk?” I asked, returning my attention to her.

She sagged. “Sure. Why the hell not.”

“Cool. Okay, cool.” I glanced around again, then hurried around the front of the Jeep to the passenger side. I fully expected her to start the vehicle and try and take off during those few seconds, but for whatever reason she seemed fairly resigned to my obnoxious desire for information. I slid into the passenger seat, shut the door, then gently pushed aside the barrel of the shotgun that lay across her lap so that it wasn’t pointed straight at me.

“All righty, that’s better,” I said. My gaze dropped to her hand. The pinky and ring finger were heavily splinted, and purplish bruising showed between strips of tape. “Who broke your hand?”

Exhaling, she leaned her head back against the seat. A curious expression of regret and admiration briefly passed over her face. “Brian Archer. Pietro Ivanov’s head of security. He caught me trying to get pictures of Ivanov and Jane Pennington.”

“Oh, wow,” I said, more than a little shocked. Though once I thought about it, I had zero doubt that the ice-calm security guy could break fingers without batting an eyelash.

Her mouth pursed slightly in annoyance, and I got the sense it was at herself. For getting caught? Somehow I could totally believe that would irk this woman. Irked looked a lot more natural on her than the verge-of-tears thing. Whatever was going on had to be huge if it pushed her to that point.

“And your bosses are mad you got caught?” I asked, trying to put the pieces together. Yet I figured they’d have to be really mad for her to be this freaked. Surely there was more to it.

She gave a low snort. “They don’t even know about that. It’s…other stuff I recently discovered about them.” Sighing, she shook her head. “I can’t go back.” Her eyes went to mine. “Please, I really need to go. And you need to be far away from me.”

I stubbornly didn’t get out of the Jeep. “What’s your name?”

A flicker of exasperation lit her eyes. “Heather,” she said, pointedly not giving a last name.

I didn’t bother asking for it. “I’m Angel Crawford, but I guess you know that already.”

“Yeah. I do.” Her gaze dropped from mine.

“Tell me who you work for.” I didn’t make it a question or request.

She grimaced. “Saberton Corporation.”

I didn’t expect that answer. “I don’t understand. Why the hell would Saberton want pictures of me?” But then my thick-headed brain decided to wake up. “Wait, they do defense contract stuff, don’t they?” A chill swept through me. Did this have anything to do with Kristi Charish’s Zoldiers project? It had to. “Do you know why they wanted pics of me?”

Heather shook her head. “Not just you. Pietro Ivanov and pretty much anyone associated with him.”

“What do you know about Pietro…and me?” I asked warily.

She took a deep breath as if clinging to calm by her fingernails. “I know what you are,” she said, voice cracking slightly. “And I’m leaving because I don’t agree with Saberton’s philosophy, especially when it comes to using your kind.” Her eyes flicked toward me. “Zombies.”

Yikes. I knew Dr. Charish had been dealing with some government or corporate group when she had me as a test subject. Was that Saberton? Were they interested in her zombie-soldier idea? “You know a lot of zombies?” I asked, still watching her.

“Met my first a couple of years ago. John Kang,” she said to my surprise. Kang, the first zombie who I knew was a zombie. “He was my best friend, hands down,” she continued, surprising me even more, especially with the depth of sincerity in her voice. Her mouth tightened. “Saberton wanted him in their pocket because of all his contacts and connections. They wanted me to set him up to, ah, encourage his cooperation.”

“Connections like Dr. Sofia Baldwin?” I asked, cocking my eyebrow in her direction. Before her death, Dr. Baldwin had been working to develop fake brains that zombies could survive on instead of human brains.

Heather gave a little nod, confirming my suspicion. This was getting more and more interesting. If interesting meant holy shit this is seriously messed up.

“I knew Sofia,” I said. “She, uh, did a lot of zombie research.” I paused. “They’re both dead, you know—Kang and Sofia. Murdered.”

Heather’s good hand tightened on the barrel of the shotgun. “I know,” she said, grief slashing across her face. “God, the only possible good thing that came out of Kang’s death was that it happened before Saberton had the chance to get their hooks into him or find out anything he knew.”

I struggled to put it all together. From what I’d seen, Kang hadn’t held a Pietro-level of power, but he certainly had influence among local zombies, especially those who weren’t associated with Pietro. Ed had killed Kang, but I wasn’t sure if Charish had specifically ordered that hit or if he’d taken it upon himself. However, she’d openly admitted to killing Sofia. If Charish had been working with Saberton at the time, surely they’d been pissed at her about both losses.

“Were you working with Kristi Charish?” I asked.

Heather twitched, almost as if she was recoiling at the name. She obviously knew who Kristi Charish was. “Not…directly,” she answered.

I frowned. “What about Philip?” Crap, I didn’t even know his last name.

But again she apparently knew who I was talking about. The corners of her mouth turned down, and her brows drew together. “Yeah. Known him about a year. Gung ho company man.”

That meant he’d been working for Saberton for at least six months before Charish forced me to turn him into a zombie. That made it pretty evident that Saberton had already been involved with Charish at the time she’d kidnapped me.

“He’s a zombie now. An experiment gone bad,” she continued with a shake of her head. “Haven’t dealt with him much since.” Her gaze rested on me as though waiting for me to say something.

Well, I didn’t know how much she already knew, but I wasn’t about to confirm that I was the one who made Philip a zombie. “Why are you freaked out about leaving?” I asked instead. “Or is this one of those deals where you don’t simply walk away?”

Her mouth twisted. “It’s one of those things where you know too much, don’t like what you know, know they’ll kill you over it, so you run and hide and figure they’ll find you sooner or later.” She shook her head. “And they’re on to me, so it’s going to be sooner if I don’t get out of here.”

Silent, I considered her plight. I didn’t know a damn thing about this woman except that supposedly she wanted to quit this evil company for somewhat vague reasons. But she knew Kang, and she definitely seemed upset about his death. “What if someone could help you?” I found myself asking.

Heather raised an eyebrow, mouth pursed in skepticism. “You mean like if my fairy godmother came in and waved a wand? It’s not going to happen.”

“How ’bout a trashy guardian angel?” I said, offering her a slight smile.

She gave me a sigh. “Thanks. But I don’t know what you could do.”

I forced myself to logically consider why I felt an urge to help her out. It didn’t totally make sense—after all, she was working for a company that was probably involved in Charish’s Zoldiers, a project which was fucked up on numerous levels. But so far all Heather had done to me was take pictures, as far as I knew. And she didn’t want to work for Saberton anymore. Plus the reason she wanted to leave was a damn good one in my eyes. I was cool with helping anyone who was against using zombies.

But mostly it was that expression of “I’m so screwed” that got to me.

“Look, I know what it’s like to be in a no-win situation, and Pietro owes me a couple of favors,” I said. It would take a lot more than a ticket to the Gourmet Gala to make up for the fact that Pietro allowed Charish to have me kidnapped. “Maybe he could help protect you.” I shrugged. “Hell, maybe you could go to work for him instead.” Because I totally had that influence, right? I held back the urge to roll my eyes at myself. But, hey, maybe she could be an asset to the zombie side of things.

Naked hope and a curious longing brightened her eyes for a brief instant before they shadowed again. “God.” Her brow furrowed, and she looked almost wistful. “I don’t know. Do you really think he’d help?”

“It’s worth a shot, right?” I dug into my purse and pulled out Brian’s card. “There you go,” I said, setting it on the console. “That’s Brian’s number.” She seemed cool, but I wasn’t about to give her Pietro’s. Jesus Christ, but I hoped this didn’t blow up in my face. What the hell would I do if Heather called Brian, and he told her to fuck off? I didn’t know if I could simply walk away from this now if that happened. Yet I also knew I’d put her in a really bad position—I’d slowed down her flight, and now was trying to convince her to turn herself over to the “enemy.”

Her eyes dropped to the card, and I could practically see her memorizing the number. “You mean now?” she said, glancing back up at me. “It’s after midnight.”

“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure he’s a robot and doesn’t sleep,” I said, then shrugged. “Trust me, those fuckers owe me enough that I can wake a few people up.” I paused. “Unless you want to wait ’til morning and see what happens.”

“Shit, no.” She pulled a phone out of her pocket.

“Yeah.” I reached and put a hand on hers. “And maybe better to use mine. In case yours is, er, tapped or whatever.”

She blew out her breath. “You’re right. I’m not thinking all that clearly right now. I’m usually good in a tight situation, but this has me clamped down.”

“Pretty understandable.” I retrieved my phone from the depths of my purse, dialed. “I’m putting it on speakerphone, but I’ll talk to him first.”

The tinny sound of the ringer filled the car, and a few seconds later: “Archer here.” A hint of hoarse slur in his voice suggested he’d likely been asleep.

“Hey, Brian, it’s Angel,” I said. “Hate to bother you so late, but…remember that chick whose fingers you broke today? Well, she’s here with me, and she wants to, um, defect.”

“The…photographer?” he asked, voice still a bit muzzy. “I don’t understand.”

“Yeah, she works for Saberton and—”

“What?” he demanded, all hint of sleep gone.

Blinking, I quickly put pieces together. “Oh. You just thought she was a reporter or something, didn’t you.” I flicked a glance at her. She gave me a shrug in return, coupled with a pained grimace. I supposed I couldn’t blame her for lying to Brian. If she’d admitted to being some sort of industrial espionage person she probably wouldn’t have escaped at all, and certainly not with only a couple of broken fingers.

“Something like that, yes,” Brian replied, voice controlled once again.

“Okay, well, she wants to leave. Quit. But figures it’s only a matter of time before they find her and, well, y’know.”

I could practically hear Brian processing all of this. “All right, Angel,” he said with zero hint of the stress he was surely feeling. “What does she want?”

I handed the phone to Heather, though I kept it on speakerphone. “You’re up, chick.”

She bit her lip and took a deep breath. “Um, hello, Brian. It’s me again.”

“What do you want, Naomi?” Brian asked. “Or whatever your name is.”

Naomi, huh? I realized that Heather probably wasn’t her name either. Though truth be told, she looked more like a Naomi than a Heather.

She closed her eyes. “Shit,” she breathed. “This was a bad idea.”

“Perhaps,” Brian said, surprising me by the admission. “How about you tell me why you want to leave Saberton, and why you’re afraid they’ll come after you.”

A mix of emotions crawled across her face, tight lines of anger, a lip curl of disgust. “I can’t deal with it anymore—what they’re doing with your kind, with zombies.”

A beat of silence while Brian processed that she knew about the zombies, which meant that she had to be in fairly deep with Saberton. I doubted that the info about zombies being totally real was handed out along with Christmas bonuses. “And you’re interested in…sanctuary with us?” A faintly dubious note crept into his voice for the first time.

She opened her eyes, flicked her gaze toward me. I gave her an encouraging nod. “I…yes,” she said. “They’ll kill me or take me back if they catch me.” She paused. “I don’t want to go back.”

“All right. How long do you suppose you have before they catch up with you?”

“I was on my way out of town when Angel caught me.” Her eyes went to the dashboard clock. “Now, I don’t know. Not long.” The dread in her eyes deepened.

I knew if Brian didn’t agree to this, she was completely screwed. Nice move, Angel.

“I actually believed you were just paparazzi,” Brian commented. I heard a rustling that I figured was him pulling on clothing. “You played me pretty damn well today.”

“Yeah, I did.” She winced, but at the same time there was a teensy touch of triumph. Probably deservedly so, I decided, if she’d been able to put one over on him.

“I’ll meet you in twenty minutes at the corner of Cottonwood Street and Main,” he said, to my relief. “Come alone and unarmed,” he continued. “You will be searched. Thoroughly. No promises or guarantees. This is a meeting only, and I’ll make a decision after that.”

Her shoulders straightened, and as I watched, it was as if all the previous desperation fell away. She knew damn well she might be walking into her death, but that was a far cry from being on the run.

“Understood,” she said, voice stronger. “I’ll be there.” She paused as if wanting to say so much more, but all she said was, “Thank you.”

“Twenty minutes,” Brian repeated and hung up.

I let out a breath. “Hey, that sounds promising, right?” I said.

She continued to look down at the phone for a few more seconds before handing it back to me. “It does. More than I had before.”

“You’d better get going,” I told her. “It’ll take you close to twenty minutes to get to that location, and the roads are really bad tonight with the rain.” I dug through my purse and came up with a pen and the back of a receipt. “Here’s my number.” I scrawled it onto the paper and handed it to her. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”

She took it, and once again I watched her commit it to memory. “Thanks.” She gave me a small smile. “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”

“I hope so,” I said fervently. I glanced out the window. “Rain’s letting up. Lemme get out of here so you can hit the road. Good luck.” And with that I snatched up Brian’s card, ducked out of her car, shut the door, and raced to mine.

Her headlights came on as she started the Jeep. She didn’t move for several seconds, and I had to wonder if she was actually going to go meet with Brian, or if she’d head in the opposite direction. But then she pulled out and turned left onto the highway—heading toward Cottonwood and Main, I sure hoped.

I was half-tempted to follow, but decided that would be going too far. And might make Brian really wonder as well, like if maybe she was coercing me into vouching for her. Instead I behaved, took a right out of the parking lot, and headed toward home.