Falling Apart (Barely Alive #2) (17 page)

“According to you, I’m down to days.” The idea dulled my craving. A sharp pain filled the spot where my heart would wither and rot at the thought I’d never see Heather again. Or if I did, she’d be so turned off by my sagging skin and flapping ligaments, she’d throw up and then run.

He shrugged, indifferent to my pain. “What do you want me to say? That’s why you’re not dead, yet. A few days isn’t enough time for you to cause me problems. I can get information from you and move on. Plus, feeding you every once in a while won’t break the food storage. We go out once a day to secure meat as it is. Adding too many of you boys and we’d have to up that.” He winked. “But you’re used to animals, right? A bite or two of what I have would be a vast improvement from your normal diet.”

Harsh. The man’s bluntness could rip apart one’s self-esteem. I bit back my retort. “Don’t you have to feed the boys in the pool?”

“Nah. They’re in stasis. Nothing going in and no energy being expended. I was worried about the bodies under the water, but when I thawed one out, it just wasn’t a live body anymore. I think he lasted twelve hours without food before he lost the ability to move. If I feed them when they come out of the pool, they’d probably last a bit longer. Like fighters on loan.” His dry laugh rumbled in his throat, amusement never reaching his face. Calculating, like predator sizing up his prey. But he couldn’t eat me. He couldn’t eat the pool zombies.

He wanted something from me that didn’t involve ingesting me.

Holy shit.
Dominic had created a life sized experiment and I was a part of it. I really was a damn guinea pig. I bit my irritation back. “Do you have a control group? I mean, all of your variables have changed, nothing is the same. How do you know what is working and what isn’t?”

He pointed at the center of my chest. If I had the balls, I’d bite his finger off. “
You
are the closest thing I have to a control group. Stay alive for a few days and I’ll make sure you’re fed and warm. How’s that sound?”

Honestly? It sounded awesome. I didn’t want to die or fade out, but if I had to, going fed and warm sounded alright to me. Already, the furnace huddled in the back of my thoughts. I’d love to see how warm it was and if heat called me like the car explosion had. “How do your guys fight the heat? Have you noticed its hypnotic pull?” Even then, after days between me and the explosion of the classic car, I could feel the heat caressing me, calling me. With Heather out of range – shit! Was James out of range? Could I still reach him mentally?

Certain my face was screwed up in concentration, I tried to imitate Dominic but I had no idea where to start. Throwing out the most concentrated thoughts, I focused on my brother.
James, can you hear me? If you can, I want you to get Heather home and tell Connie and Travis the details. We need a cure. I have maybe three days left.
I passed as many of the details I’d heard from Dominic I could manage. If I passed anything. Regret filled me. I’d chosen not to experiment and learn more with Travis. I hadn’t been ready to open my mind and investigate my capability to read minds and control others. Now, when I needed it most, it worked more like a damn AM radio station than a hand-held two-way.

No idea if the universe got my message and even less if my brother had.

Dominic cut into my thoughts. “Yeah, but I stay in the idiots’ heads until they’re out of the furnace room. I command them not to go back inside. It makes it easier than sending in two new ones every time.” He ducked his head as if he had a modicum of humility in him.

Psh. Bastard.

“So, what’s the plan?” I crossed my ankles and leaned back in an attempt at nonchalance but I’m fairly sure I only succeeded at appearing scared-shitless. Oh, I’d kill for more meat – figuratively, of course.

“That’s it. I want to go after Duncan. I want Heather. You’re not going to be alive much longer and I need all the information you have.” His smugness curled in the air. “You’re not stupid. I can get some of Travis and his bitch-wife’s info from you. If I need anymore, I’ll have you call them.” He shrugged. “I’m not concerned.”

I tried to breathe it in, absorb the fact that staying behind might have been one of my dumber ideas. Holy shit, I was losing it. I wanted the meat. More of it. I couldn’t think straight and I’m sure some of what he said fell into open space in my head. I couldn’t grasp the meaning in his words.

Heather was supposed to be injured. I had no idea how James was doing. I was in the cave of the world’s largest enemy and expected to turn over my friends and remaining family when I was supposed to be saving the world and my girl.

What would Heather do if she knew how poorly I was performing?

James’s voice bit through the excess.
Paul, got it. Not far from town. Had to stop and help Heather. She’s injured, but not bad. Heading north now. Left you a cell behind the third tree from the building. Good luck.
Luckily, I didn’t fall off the chair at his suddenly clear voice in my head.

I couldn’t conceptually abandon my brother and Heather to whatever Dominic thought he was doing. “What are you going to do? I don’t want to go back there.” Not only that, but I couldn’t. Why sacrifice myself to Dominic for my last few days to save Heather, if the jerk-off was only going after her anyway? I wanted to go up there, but not on his terms.

He waved his hand. “No worries, Paully. I don’t see you making it far with your restricted diet. Not a lot you can do to stop me, is there?” His grin widened and a knowing glint shadowed his eyes.

Damn it. He had me there. I
couldn’t
stop him. Not with mere days left to me. But how was it possible that I was about to deteriorate when I felt so energetic? The small amount of meat Dominic had given me seemed to have rejuvenated me back to the start of my change. True, I couldn’t stop thinking about the meat, but what did that have to do with anything?

He was going to make me beg. I’d rather be indebted to the devil than lose more life so fast. “Do you have more of that meat? I feel better, but not one-hundred percent.” I’d even be willing to go out back and kill more animals – with my hands.

Dominic’s glint gained fire and combusted to a spark, spreading to his voice. “Of course, would you like blonde, brunette, or red? Or do you have a more exotic taste?”

I tucked my chin. “What?” Disgust roiled in my gut, but my nerves didn’t seem to care. They wanted more. Oh, hell, I wanted more. What did that make me?

“You didn’t expect me to provide you with livestock, did you?” He chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t have patience for feeding on animals and I wouldn’t waste my time feeding you one just for your sissy sensibilities.”

But his words sank in and bile rose in the back of my throat. Yet I couldn’t throw up. I wouldn’t. I’d already ingested the flesh. The damage had been done. How much more time would it afford me? How long would it give me? And did I have enough time left to let go of myself and eat more? I’d have to see myself munching on some chick instead of some deer. The task would be more achievable were I under his control. Maybe I should ask him to bite me again – I wouldn’t, but why did it have to be so damn hard to do the right thing?

If I really wanted to piss Dominic off – which I did! - I’d tell him Brian’s mother had also been Heather’s, but the chance that she was immune, too, was more valuable. Unless of course, it would prevent Dominic from pursuing Heather into northern Idaho, wins all around. The mere chance he wouldn’t follow Heather was worth the risk of devaluing the information. “What if I told you something that would decrease Heather’s value? Would you still go north?”

He scrunched his lips and leaned on his elbows. “I’d consider the possibility, but I highly doubt you have details I don’t. You’re not well informed, even though you think so.” A few fingers pulled toward his chest in a come-this-way motion. “But, let’s hear it. I’m interested enough to listen.” He ended on a chuckle. Man’s sense of humor lacked something. Sanity, maybe.

Fine. I didn’t have much to bargain with. “Brian’s mother? She was supposedly Heather’s mother, too.”

Dominic’s eyebrows rose. “Really? Well, that is something.” Over his shoulder, he ordered two boys to grab the corpse in the parking lot.

One darted forward and whispered in Dominic’s ear. Dominic whipped around in his seat and yelled, “I didn’t order anyone to take care of the body.” He clenched his hands in his lap and hardened his features. Pure anger poured off him in waves. I leaned back to avoid any stray backlash, watching for a hand or foot to fly through the air.

The boy’s eyes rolled in the back of his head. His spine snapped straight and his shoulders rocketed forward. He clutched at his throat, his fingers scrabbling for a hold. Gurgles came from his gaping mouth. Blood dripped from his ears and nose.

Not one hand had hit him. No guns or knives nearby. He hadn’t been touched by anyone.

I don’t know how Dominic did it, but the boy dropped to the ground. I didn’t dare ask if he was dead. What I didn’t know couldn’t hurt
me
, right? But could Dominic kill the virus’s effects? If the body stayed down, it might be one trick to learn.

Yet, there went my trading piece. For some reason, Brian wasn’t immune – obviously. I’d have to ask Heather the details, if I ever made it out alive. Other than Heather’s mother, I had no other power. Nothing. He’d go after Heather, with or without my help. If I offered my help, the difficult part would be if it would be detrimental or helpful for Heather. I sighed, as if resigned. “What can I do to help?”

“More than you know.” Ignoring the body on the ground behind him as it twitched and roiled in the change between dead to undead, Dominic whispered my way. “You’re a smart boy, Paul. If that had been Heather’s mother, she may or may not have had the immunity. Unfortunately, we’ll never know. They burned her body.” Burned.
As in, we’d never know. Shit.
Even Heather would never know.

Either way, for Brian’s mom, she was better off. But I was screwed or Heather was screwed, whichever way you looked at it.

Dominic pressed his fingers over his eyes. “I don’t care about the bitch. I just want the girl and Duncan – both Duncans. I remember the hot wife. I could do something with her.” He sat up and folded his hands. “It’d be interesting to see if she is as insatiable sexually as we are.”

The horrific reality of his statement consumed me. The girls were as bad as the boys, if not worse, according to Travis’s predicament. I could focus on a single goal or task as long as I had eaten relatively recently. Connie had a need to multitask, do a lot at once, and Travis couldn’t keep up.

If the zombies Dominic had unleashed across the nation continued infecting men and women, they would eventually have to divide amongst themselves with dwindling food resources. With a sense of organization among us, mentally we were intact for the most part up to a point. Logically, male and female counterparts would separate according to sex.

As smart as guys were and as strong, I hadn’t seen a large enough deficit in Connie’s strength and smarts to suggest that girls would be on the defensive. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if female zombies took over the world. The thought freaked me out even more, considering Connie had wanted to eat and eat on our trip to Sandpoint – and she was one of the “good guys”.

“Dominic, have you thought this through at all? What happens when the zombies you’ve created meet up with ones you didn’t?” The thought of Heather living in the upcoming unavoidable apocalypse didn’t reassure me. 

He waved my question away. “Look, you guys aren’t here for the long haul. Let me worry about what to do with the world, once I’ve taken over. You should be concerned with how long you have left. How do you want to spend your last hours? Mulling over problems you’ll never see resolved, or screwing and eating everything in sight?” His eyelids lowered. “I know what I would want to do.”

And there it was. The moment where I had to choose. But what exactly did my choices include besides being on Dominic’s side and dying? I wasn’t right in the head and, help me, I wanted more meat. Needed more meat. Human flesh. Damnation was mine already, it couldn’t hurt much to indulge just a bit the last few days of my life.

But raping and killing weren’t my idea of indulging. Perfection was Heather in my arms – kissing her neck, her ear, the slope of her shoulder – any of her, all of her. I sat up, hands on my knees. Irritated at my train of thought and my uncontrollable need for meat, I snapped. “Do you actually need me? I can starve somewhere else.”

The room stilled. I hadn’t noticed the constant motion around me – like fan blew glitter around the room, the shifting and changing in the air. But it stopped as if someone pushed pause on the remote. I’d challenged him, without even trying. I glanced around me. The boy Dominic had killed had disappeared along with the cohort who must have removed him.

Dominic’s eyes narrowed to slits and his lips thinned into a straight line. “Where would you go?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead. But I don’t want to eat humans and you don’t want to stop. Plus, I only have a few days left. Where would I go?” I shrugged, my indifference only skin deep. I clenched my fingers into my palms. I’d run the entire three days just to get to Heather’s side. I’d made an idiotic, dumbass decision to stay with Dominic. Some decoy I was turning out to be. He didn’t even need me. Not the way he made it sound.