Nicky couldn’t help thinking about how he’d run out on his grandmother when he saw that she was a zombie. “You were just scared, that’s all.”
~ ~ ~
Voices floated from the room at the end of the hallway. The door was ajar and Rachel wasn’t sure if they should walk in or not. She glanced at Cage and he pulled her forward.
Their footsteps were loud enough that Manny poked his head out of the room. His face was grim, but he waved them inside. Rachel followed Cage into the bedroom.
The room was huge. The floors were wooden and flowered curtains covered the lone window. A queen-size bed with four wooden posts sat in the middle of the room on top of a pink rug.
Selena lay sick in the bed while Adam pressed a washcloth against her forehead. Her lips were dry and chapped, as if she were thirsty, but her teeth chattered uncontrollably despite the pile of blankets covering her.
Her skin had turned slightly gray. Rachel’s heart squeezed when she noticed Selena’s eyes. A milky film covered the beautiful seafoam green color.
Selena’s hand rested on Adam’s arm. “Did you call St. Petersburg? Did you tell them that I’m coming to visit?”
“I did.”
“Did you tell them Vivienne was coming, too? They’ll be happy to see her. She was always Papa’s favorite.”
Adam wiped her forehead. “I told them. Try to rest, Selena.”
“Where is Vivienne? Is she here yet?”
“No, Vivienne’s not here,” Adam said calmly.
“I’ll give you some time,” Manny said to Rachel and Cage. He squeezed past them in the doorway. His footsteps echoed on the wooden floor and down the creaky stairs.
Adam glanced over his shoulder. “Hey.”
Rachel moved in closer, despite her reservations. She didn’t have a good bedside manner. She never knew the right things to say, but Adam needed her support. Rachel didn’t want him to go through this alone.
“Hi Selena, it’s Rachel.”
Selena’s head lolled to the side. Her eyes lifted to Rachel and a flash of recognition crossed her face. She smiled.
“She recognizes you,” Adam said.
“Of course I recognize her,” Selena whispered. “I told you the green shirt would look lovely.”
Adam switched places with Rachel. He whispered to Cage. “She hasn’t been lucid. She keeps thinking she’s in the past and that her parents and Vivienne are still alive.” The guys moved away from the bed, giving Rachel privacy.
Rachel sat next to Selena, careful not to jostle the bed. Heat radiated off Selena’s skin, despite her violent shivering. “You were right about the shirt.”
“I’m always right about clothes.” Selena smiled, but it slipped into a frown. “I can’t believe it bit me.”
“I’m so sorry,” Rachel whispered. “Are you thirsty? Can I get you something to drink?”
Selena shook her head. “I met Adam at the grocery store, did you know that?”
“No. You never told me that story.”
Selena closed her eyes. “I couldn’t reach the oatmeal on the top shelf and I was too stubborn to call for help. I was about to give up, but there he was, setting down his little handheld basket full of frozen dinners and chips. He reached for the oatmeal and then asked me out to dinner.” She opened her eyes. The milky film completely covered the lens. She smiled conspiratorially. “He was the hottest man I’d ever laid eyes on.”
“You snatched a good one, Selena.”
“Adam likes you.”
Rachel’s stomach clenched. “I like Adam. He’s a good guy.”
Selena shook her head. “No, he likes you. He followed you all the way to Ann Arbor.” The corners of her mouth turned downward. “Adam and I could’ve just stayed in Flint and weathered the storm.”
Rachel didn’t know what to say.
“I’m not angry. What’s the point? I don’t have long. Just look out for Adam, please.” The words tumbled out of Selena’s mouth. “Don’t let him volunteer to go in first, like he always does. He wants to be the hero, but don’t let him. Go with him. Protect him. Talk him out of his stupid, dangerous plans. Okay?”
A tear dripped onto Rachel’s hand. She was crying. “I’ll take good care of Adam, I promise.”
Selena lazily moved her head. The urgency that she’d just expressed was gone. Her face relaxed and her eyes flickered aimlessly around the room. “I’m tired. Can you get Vivienne? I need to ask her if she wants me to pick up that shift on Friday night.”
Cage placed his hands on Rachel’s shoulders. She stood and Cage dipped in to kiss Selena on the forehead.
“Do you want us to leave?” Rachel asked Adam. “Do you need some time?”
“No, stay. I don’t know if —”
Cage laid his hand on Adam’s shoulder. “We’ll stay.”
Selena closed her eyes and mumbled in Russian. Rachel and Cage moved from the bed and leaned against the window.
The summer sun was still high in the sky, it was nearly five o’clock, but the streets were empty. Rachel watched a blackbird perched on a cable wire as they waited for Selena to die.
It took forty-seven minutes. She didn’t open her eyes again, but she called out Adam’s name. Her chin rose to the celling, she gasped one last difficult breath, and then she died.
Adam’s strong shoulders slumped. Rachel felt incredibly out of place, like Cage and she were spying on a private moment, but she understood why they were there. For Adam. In case he couldn’t or wouldn’t do it.
Rachel grew antsy. How long did it take for the body to reanimate? Valerie, her foster mother, had quickly reanimated. The same for Adam’s firefighter friend Tony who died at the Wooden Barrel. He’d changed into a zombie in less than ninety seconds.
Selena’s pinkie finger twitched.
Rachel tensed. Adam still held Selena’s lifeless body. Movement registered in her peripheral vision. Manny stood in the doorway holding a bow and arrow.
Selena’s leg jerked.
“Adam,” Rachel said.
Manny entered the room.
“Adam,” Rachel repeated. Fear grew in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t want Selena to infect Adam. “You have to put Selena down. She’s turning.”
He lowered his head. “I can’t kill her. I can’t do it.”
“It’s okay.” Cage stepped forward. “You don’t have to. I’ll do it for you.”
Adam didn’t move. Selena’s limbs convulsed.
“Adam, please.” Rachel moved closer to the bed. There wasn’t much time.
Selena’s body shook in Adam’s arms like she was having a seizure. A low, wheezy breath floated from Selena’s mouth. It sounded like a moan. Her eyes were shut, but this was it. Rachel could sense the transformation happening.
“Adam, she’s turning!” Rachel cried.
Cage ran forward. He pulled Adam away from Selena’s shuddering body and dragged him off the bed.
Manny calmly placed an arrow in his bow.
Selena’s body abruptly stopped trembling. Her eyelids opened, revealing the icy blue eyes that marked every zombie.
Adam groaned. “No. I promised her. I promised.”
Cage grabbed Adam’s gun from the bedside table.
“No! I promised.” Adam put his hands on top of his head. “Oh, no.”
Cage shoved Adam at Rachel. “Hold him! I’ll take care of Selena.”
Rachel wrapped her arms around Adam’s waist and tried to pull him back, but he was too strong.
“No,” Manny said. “The gun’s too loud.”
“You can’t kill her with an arrow.” Rachel struggled to keep Adam away from the bed.
Cage raised the gun.
Selena’s icy blue eyes locked onto them. Her mouth opened and she growled. Rachel pushed Adam against the wall, trying desperately to get him away from Selena. Rachel pulled Adam’s face down, forcing him to focus on her. She didn’t want him to see Selena like that. “Don’t look, Adam.”
“I pr
omised her I’d do it. I can’t let her down, too.”
Rachel’s heart clinched. Adam was referring to his mother. He felt responsible for both Selena and his mother’s deaths. “You haven’t let anyone down. Do you hear me?”
Adam’s dark eyes were blank.
Cage pointed the gun at Selena.
“You are in my house. Do not fire that weapon,” Manny repeated. “I will not tell you again.”
Selena snarled and struggled to roll out of bed with her new uncoordinated limbs. Her battered feet touched the ground and she stood on unsteady legs. Drool spilled from her open mouth.
“You’re not going to shoot her with an arrow,” Cage said.
Selena lifted her arms.
“You’re not going to shoot her with the gun and let every zombie in the neighborhood know we’re in here.” Manny pulled back the string.
Selena’s taut gray face was too horrible to look at. Rachel had Adam in a bear hug against the wall, but she wanted to flip him around so he wouldn’t have to watch.
Adam’s hand trailed down Rachel’s back to her waist. Adam reached into her back pocket and pulled out the hunting knife. He unsheathed the blade, shoved Rachel to the side and sprinted to the bed.
“Adam!” Rachel cried. “No!”
Selena shambled toward Adam with her arms raised in a horrible mockery of a hug. Her mouth opened like a viper.
Manny stood with his bow ready. Cage cocked the gun.
But it was Adam who took matters into his own hands. He let out a heartbreaking cry and launched himself forward, slamming the hunting knife deep into Selena’s head.
Chapter Fifteen
Cage stood frozen in Manny’s bedroom. His hands were sweaty from gripping the gun too tightly. Rachel’s hands were outstretched toward Adam. Manny had his elbow pulled back, ready to unleash his arrow, but he was frozen by the sight, too.
Cage had failed. He should’ve shot Selena the second she reanimated. Why had he allowed Adam to kill her? With a hunting knife? Adam would never be able to get that image out of his mind.
Adam sat on the floor with Selena’s lifeless body. His facial expression was blank. Cage caught Rachel’s eye. Her chest heaved and her mouth was open. Cage pulled her under his arm.
“I’m sorry,” Rachel whispered. “I didn’t know he was going for my knife. I should’ve stopped him. It happened so fast.”
“Nothing would have stopped him.” Manny let his bow fall to his side. “Give him some time to grieve.”
Cage and Rachel followed Manny out of the bedroom and downstairs. Lindsay, Nicky and the kids were in the living room watching TV.
Nicky stood up. “Is she — ?”
Cage nodded. “Selena’s gone.”
Rachel lowered herself to the floor where Finn and Morgan were lying on a pile of blankets. She laid her head on Morgan’s pillow without saying a word. Morgan snuggled beside her.
“Did Adam do it?” Jorge asked from the hallway.
“It’s done,” Manny said.
“We need to get the body out of —”
“He needs some time, Jorge.”
Cage sat beside Rachel and the kids. TV was exactly what he needed. Something light. Something to take his mind off what he’d just witnessed. He squeezed his eyes shut. Why didn’t he react sooner?
“Dude, you let Adam do it himself?” Nicky asked.
“I tried to do it, but Adam kind of lost it.”
“Is he up there with her body?” Lindsay asked.
Cage nodded.
“When do we leave?” Nicky whispered.
“When Adam’s ready.”
“I don’t like that guy Jorge.” Nicky leaned over the coffee table. “You shouldn’t either. Have you seen the way he looks at Rachel?”
If Nicky had noticed Jorge’s leering, then it was worse than Cage had initially suspected. Cage hadn’t said anything out of respect to Adam, but he’d absolutely noticed the way Jorge stared at Rachel.
Cage looked at Nicky. “We’ll go as soon as Adam’s ready. Not a minute later.”
Nicky frowned and settled back on the couch beside Lindsay, who was practically on his lap. Cage lifted the blanket and scooted beside Rachel.
Through a crack in the boarded window, Cage watched the sky turn from blue to pink with the setting sun. The television played on, but no one was watching it. Finn had fallen asleep beside Morgan. Nicky and Lindsay whispered on the couch and Rachel lightly sang in Morgan’s ear. Carmen sat in the corner chair knitting a scarf from yellow yarn. Manny and Jorge had stayed in the kitchen.
Footsteps crossed the hallway upstairs.
Cage sat up.
Adam’s shoes thumped as he descended the stairs. Would he be okay? Should Cage say something to him? Adam’s legs appeared and then he fully came into view as he reached the landing. He held Selena’s dead body in his arms.
“Adam,” Rachel said. “What are you doing?”
Manny and Jorge appeared.
“I need a shovel,” Adam said to Manny, without looking at him. “She needs to be buried.”
“She needs to be burned,” Jorge said. “Manny, you don’t want those toxins in your grass. What if that girl’s infected juices leak into Carmen’s garden?”
“Selena needs to be buried,” Adam repeated. He said it so slowly and so menacingly that Morgan pulled the covers over her face.
“I’ll get the shovel,” Manny said. “You can put her in the backyard.”
Manny walked out the backdoor. Everyone followed him outside.
A chain link fence enclosed the backyard. It was a decent-size yard with a garden to the left and a toolshed in the far right corner. Adam carried Selena and carefully placed her body on the grass near the toolshed. Manny returned with three shovels. He handed one to Adam. Cage stepped forward to receive the third.
The sky had turned to a swirl of pinks, reds and purples. The moon was already out and Cage figured they had about an hour until complete darkness. Cage had never dug a hole before, let alone a grave, and after twenty minutes of digging the muscles in his shoulders were on fire. Adam dug like a madman, not stopping for a break or water, only when the hole was big enough to fit Selena.
The others stood awkwardly around the grave. Carmen brought a blanket to wrap Selena’s body and Morgan had picked a bouquet of flowers from Carmen’s garden.
Adam covered Selena and lowered her into the hole just as the first zombie appeared at the fence. The funeral crasher was a teenage boy of maybe thirteen. He was shirtless and wore dirty blue shorts. He was barely taller than the fence, but he reached over the barrier and growled.
Rachel stepped away from the funeral and killed the zombie with a quick thrust to the head with her hunting knife.
“We need to hurry,” Manny said. “We don’t want to be out here when it gets dark.” Manny shot an arrow at an old woman extending her arms over the fence. The arrow lodged into her wrinkled forehead and Manny reached over the fence to retrieve his arrow.
Nicky picked up Manny’s shovel and helped fill the hole as best he could with his injured shoulder.
More zombies crowded around the backyard, tumbling out from alleys and houses, hearing the sounds of other zombies growling. Lindsay and Carmen stood with Morgan and Finn, while Rachel, Manny and Jorge moved along the fence disposing of the zombies.
When the hole was finally filled, over twenty zombies surrounded the chain link fence. Morgan placed the bouquet of flowers on top of the mound.
“We need to get inside,” Jorge whispered to Manny. “Now. The crowd is getting too big and that fence isn’t going to hold them back if more show up.”
Rachel used her bat on a cluster of zombies reaching over the fence.
“Adam.” Manny placed his hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “Time to get inside the house. We’re attracting them. It’s dangerous.”
Adam allowed Carmen to usher him into the house after the others. Cage, Rachel and Jorge stayed outside to take care of the crowd surr
ounding the fence. They were easy to kill because the fence kept them back, but the moaning and growling attracted others. Cage would kill one zombie and two more would take its place.
“You’re pretty good with that bat, honey,” Jorge said to Rachel. He recklessly plunged his machete into a group of zombies. “Who taught you how to fight like that?”
“Don’t talk to her.” Cage swung the tire iron against a skull.
“Excuse me?” Jorge said. “What did you say, little boy?”
Cage turned. “I didn’t stutter. I said, don’t talk to her.”
“It’s okay, Cage,” Rachel said.
“Yeah, Cage, mind your own business.” Jorge swung the machete. “If you have a problem with me, then we can solve it right now.”
Anger swelled inside of Cage. He smashed the tire iron across a zombie’s skull. “We’re only going to have a problem if you keep talking to Rachel.”
“You don’t tell me what to do. I’ll do whatever the hell I want. Who do you think you are coming to my house —”
Cage faced Jorge. “This is Manny’s house. Not yours and we’re his guests. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you look at Rachel. Stay away from her and we won’t have a problem.”
“Oh, we have a problem, all right.”
Rachel jumped in between them. “Cage, let’s go inside. It’s not working. We’re just attracting more zombies.” She grabbed Cage’s hand.
Jorge’s eyes leisurely traveled over Rachel from head to toe. “Don’t you want a real man, girl? You can’t be happy with that.” He grinned at Cage.
Cage tensed, but Rachel dragged him to the back door.
Jorge laughed and swung his machete into a crowd of zombies near the toolshed. Once they closed the door on Jorge’s laughing, Rachel turned to Cage. “Ignore him. He’s trying to start a fight with you.”
Cage opened his mouth to protest, but Rachel kissed him. “Let’s find Morgan and Finn. I want to leave this place first thing tomorrow morning.”
~ ~ ~
Nicky needed to take a dump, but his body wasn’t cooperating. It must’ve been from all of the shit food he’d been eating lately. He washed his hands in the sink and checked his reflection in the mirror.