I fought my captor but failed to loosen his hold.
Behind me, a loud boom erupted. I and the man holding me were lifted off the ground by a hard blast of heat and propelled into the side of the vehicle. My skull cracked against the metal, and my eyesight dimmed. Shards of wood rained as I watched the man scramble up.
“Alice, my sweet Alice,” I heard someone say from inside the van—and I recognized his voice.
My father had come for me.
I woke up tied to a chair, confused, my eyesight still dim but gradually clearing. Severe pain tore through my head. My entire body ached. I felt as if I had time traveled to the day after the car accident, when my world had collapsed around me.
Well, my world had just collapsed again.
Memories flooded me. Cole, coming over to my house. The vision of my death. Leaving the house—or trying to leave it. Masked men attacking. Me, grabbed and carried away. The explosion. The van. My father.
Cole. Nana.
Bile burned a path to my throat. They had survived. I wouldn’t believe anything else.
I struggled against my bonds. I had to find them, had to get them help. As I tugged at the rope, I realized that I was in some kind of lab. The lights were turned low, but I could see people in lab coats buzzing around in every direction. I could smell a copper tang in the air, as well as the putrid odor of decay, and I gagged.
“Good. You’re awake.” A female wearing a hazmat suit stepped into my line of vision. She lifted her mask, and spread her arms wide. “Welcome to Anima Industries.”
“Dr. Wright,” I wheezed. “Did they get you, too?”
“How sweet. You trust me so much, you’re willing to overlook the evidence and convince yourself I must be a prisoner, like you.”
In seconds, the smugness of her tone sliced that trust to ribbons, revealing the truth. I didn’t want to believe it, but there was no denying it. She was a spy. A traitor.
“There we go,” she said with a nod. “You’ve just realized I was using your little group for information, nothing more. That my men weren’t following the zombies but the tracker I’d placed in everyone’s boots. Made things so easy.”
Will destroy her. “You said I could trust you,” I gritted out.
“I lie about everything.” She chuckled. “In fact, I might even be lying about lying. Impossible to tell.”
I tugged more fervently at the ropes. “Did you bring Cole and my grandmother here, too?”
“No, I didn’t, and no, I don’t know where they are. The bomb was not our doing, and they were missing when my men went back to search what was left of the house.”
The truth? Or just another lie in a long string? “Why are you doing this?” I demanded.
She rested one hand on her hip, a regal pose not even the hazmat suit could ruin. “Cole’s father wants to destroy the zombies. We want to use them.”
Use absolute evil? “Why?”
“Why else? Money. They are weapons. No army can withstand them. We can use them to destroy whosoever the highest bidder desires from the inside out—and we’ll never have to lift a finger.”
“But they’ll kill us, too!” Not to mention the rest of the world.
“No. We’ve learned to control them. Let me show you.” She looked over my shoulder and motioned with her finger.
A moment later, the lights brightened. I squinted, tried to twist, but couldn’t quite manage it. The sound of shuffling footsteps filled my ears, and then Jaclyn came into view. She, too, was wearing a hazmat suit, the clear mask revealing a shamed expression—another lie surely. She held the end of a rope.
A rope attached to my dad.
I blinked, froze. He was as tall as I remembered, but his hair had thinned. His skin possessed a grayish cast, and there were dark splotches all over his face and neck. He wore a suit, the cuffs and hem frayed.
I’d wanted to see him for so long, had missed him so much, I experienced a sudden surge of elation. Elation that was squashed as eyes that glinted ruby-red in the light drilled into me.
“Let me go,” I said, my struggles renewed. Whether I’d try to aid him or end him, I wasn’t sure.
Unbidden, my spirit began to separate from my body—
“Oh, no, you don’t. You stay put,” Dr. Wright snapped. “Your spirit will be tied up, too, because yes, you’ll take the ropes with you, but that will only cause a zombie uprising that I’ll have to contain. If that happens, I’ll be so irritated I know I’ll end up bringing your friend Kat to the lab to teach you a lesson.”
Grinding my molars, I forced myself to settle back in.
“Join…us,” my dad rasped.
“His cognitive process has astounded us,” Dr. Wright said, and she actually sounded proud. “Usually by this point, they are mindless, hungry, but all he wants is to spend time with his only living daughter.”
Tears seared my eyes. He’s not your dad. Not really. Just…don’t react to any of this right now. You’ll become hysterical. You can react later.
Drool dripped from the corner of his mouth. His fingers curled, as if he were readying himself to attack. “Together…again. Us.”
A few days ago, I would have given anything for a moment like this. A chance to be with him, to talk with him, and now I had it. He might be one of the undead, but he recognized me and wanted me with him always. He missed me.
I admit it. I missed him, too, so very very much, and part of me was tempted to accept. Tempted, yes, but I knew better. “No, Daddy. I can’t.” My tears spilled over, tracking down my cheeks.
A pause, the moans and grunts of other zombies piercing my ears. “Please.” More drool dripped from him.
“No need to answer again,” Dr. Wright said. “It doesn’t matter. We’re going to let him have you.”
Fear exploded through me, and I jerked at the rope, the abrasions on my skin splitting open. Warm liquid trickled down my fingers and pooled on the floor. The moans and grunts mutated into snarls, the zombies whipping into an abrupt frenzy.
They’d scented my fear.
I forced myself to still.
“I had hoped you would realize we were the better choice,” Dr. Wright said with a sigh. “Your abilities intrigue me.”
“Too bad, because I would rather die than help you.”
“That’s what I thought you’d say.” She smiled with ice-cold assurance. “But when you become a zombie, do you really think you’ll be able to resist me? You see, the ropes are laced with the chemical Cole uses for his Blood Lines. The zombies can’t break them, which allows us to maneuver the creatures wherever we desire. And when we put the zombies with a human, instinct takes over.” Dad hissed at her, and Dr. Wright glowered at him. “Enough.”
He wrenched at his own binding.
Jaclyn stumbled. “Dr. Wright—”
“You will behave yourself,” she snapped, and I wasn’t sure whether she was talking to the girl or to my father. “Do you want me to feed Ali to other zombies?”
My dad, then. He gave another wrench, a much harder one, and this time Jaclyn was forced to release him or topple to the ground.
“Stop—”
He sprang at Dr. Wright, clawing and biting at her, but he couldn’t get past her suit.
Dr. Wright grabbed hold of his rope and attempted to wrestle him to the ground. “Enough of that, Mr. Bell. You’ve already earned Ali’s punishment. Now you’re working on your own.”
“Taste!” my father shouted.
I heard shrieks erupt behind me, the rush of footsteps.
“They’re escaping, Dr. Wright,” someone shouted.
“Keep with protocol!” she demanded.
Hisses of determination sounded next. More footsteps. Then more still, though these were lighter. People screamed. Zombies grunted. Then sharp needle-like pricks were jabbing at my neck and shoulders, shooting acid straight into my veins. I screamed and flailed as my chair fell forward. I tried to slip out of my body, desperate to protect myself and fight, but my strength was compromised by all that acid. At least my bonds finally loosened, and I was able to free my arms.
I twisted and batted at what could only be a nest of zombies—but my hands merely ghosted through them. They were spirits, and I was human. The original biters stumbled away from me, gasping, choking, but that didn’t help me. Line after line of zombies wanted a turn with me, and the next line simply surged forward.
“Daddy!” I screamed.
Maim…
Kill…
Destroy…
The thoughts bombarded me, as every point of contact with the zombies scalded me. Soon I felt as if someone had peeled away my skin, exposing raw muscle.
The second line stumbled away, and the third stepped up to the plate. They were like sharks, burrowing deep, past skin, muscle and hitting bone, uncaring about the bright light shining down on them.
Maim…kill…destroy…
No, I thought. No! I would not give in. People could fight the evil urges, Cole had said, and I would fight. If I could win this battle, maybe I could survive the infection.
Maimkilldestroy…
NO!
“Stop,” I said. “You will stop.”
One by one, all of the lines began to fall away, unable to resist the power of my words, natural realm or not. When there was no one else around me, I still couldn’t force myself to rise. My entire body felt bathed by flames.
“Stay…back,” I rasped.
From this angle, I could see the entire room. Several hazmats were lying on the ground, struggling to escape. Zombies, so many zombies, tried to claw past their suits. Zombies littered the floor, practically climbed the walls, and swung from the equipment. The ones who had yet to attack me formed a wall at my left, shaking with the need to return to me.
Maybe they would have broken free of my faith-filled demand, but suddenly my dad loomed over me, his big body blocking them. His eyes flashed red in the light, and he licked his lips…lowered his head… “Join me. Will join me.”
