Turned: A Spine-Chilling Young Adult Apocalyptic Fiction (The Undead Series, Book 1) (10 page)

Frozen in fear, I could do nothing but stare. I tried to scream, but no sounds escaped from my mouth. A bloody umbilical cord came out from my vagina and attached to the lump.

“Jesus Christ, it’s the baby,” I moaned in horror. I yelled for Jasper, and though I heard myself this time, no one came. The yell made the baby start crying but it was turned away from me so I couldn’t see its face. I reached down to pick it up and turn it over to reveal its face. Underneath the blood, the baby’s skin was an icy blue…there was no crying anymore, she wasn’t breathing.

“Jasper!” I screamed. “Jasper! Help me! Em, Emily, help me please, dear God help me!”

My screams fell on deaf ears, and I was too weak to lift myself up off the bed. All I could do was stare at the little blue face and rock her back and forth until someone helped me. I closed my eyes and prayed. The floor creaking made me jump, and I opened my eyes to find the door to the room open. Em was there and stared at me blankly.

“Did you have the fucking baby?” she said in an eerie voice that could have evoked the devil himself.

“What?” I said through tears. I looked down and then up again and Em was now beside my bed.

“You had the fucking baby,” she echoed again. “Hey Ethan, she had the fucking baby! I mean Jasper,” she smirked.

“Em, she’s blue…she’s not breathing!” I screamed. “Something is not right, she shouldn’t have been born yet. Help me please!” All of a sudden, Jasper was in the door to my room, smiling brightly.

“Baby, help me,” I screamed at him. “She’s not doing anything to help me!”

“Baby, baby, baby, help me, oh help me!” he mocked me.

“Will you to fucking do something?” I screamed. “I can’t get up, and she’s not breathing, Jasper!” Em stepped forward and snatched the baby out my hands and rocked her, then walked slowly over to Jasper.

“Mommy didn’t want you, did she baby? Poor little sweet baby…mommy killed you.” She turned towards me again and cackled. “That’s what you get for being an ungrateful fucking whore – a dead baby. Congratulations mommy!” I tried so hard to get off the bed, but I fell to the floor sobbing, calling out for my baby…for someone to help me.

“What’s she doing with my daughter?” I screamed. I looked up from the floor, and Jasper stood next to my feet.

“What do you fucking care? You didn’t want her anyway.” He twisted his neck to the left and focused his eyes on the closet door.

“Here kitty, kitty!” he laughed as he walked over the closet. “I’ve got your dinner kitty.” He opened the closet door. Kitty? I thought through sobs. What the hell was he talking about? He turned the knob on the closet door and it creeped open. I saw nothing come out at first, and then a grimy zombie with razor sharp teeth and black eyes that looked like they’d been submerged in water way too long barreled out at me. I could only sneak a short look at him before he was an arm’s length away from my stomach. He had such similar facial features to Ethan.

I locked eyes with him for a split second, begging him with my eyes not to eat me, but the only thing I could see behind those swollen eyes was a ravenous hunger for the taste of my flesh. I saw his head plunge at my stomach, and I squeezed my eyelids together in an attempt to block out the pain but it didn’t work. I felt his teeth rip off a chunk of my chest and heard his bloodcurdling moan as he felt the piece of my flesh hit his slimy, rotten brown tongue. I tried to scream, but couldn’t because I was suddenly unable to breathe.

I clawed at the rug on the floor in an attempt to pull away from him, but his hunger was insatiable and he dipped down for another large bite when I felt something gnaw at my scalp. As I gasped for breath, I looked up to see my baby, now turned to a zombie, with a full mouth of teeth, eating off the top of my skull.

I sat up straight in bed and my eyes popped open, my body as slimy as a worm from the sweat puddles I was laying in. My eyeballs darted around the room, looking for any sign of the baby or the Ethan-looking zombie. There was nothing but heavy silence. It was a dream. It must have been a dream.

I took a deep breath and rubbed the sweat from my forehead. I paused to reflect on what my mind had just concocted. Of course, the dream made zero sense. I guessed it was just due to the stress of dealing with Jasper and Em’s disagreement, the head injury from the zombie attack, and the guilty feeling that still plagued me for moving on from Ethan so quickly to another man. Despite the dream taking its toll on my body and my emotions, I felt stronger. I pushed myself out of bed and walked carefully down the stairs to see Jasper.

It looked like he’d been awake for at least an hour and had everything packed up before I got down there. He seemed jubilant, on the complete opposite end of the mood spectrum than he was the night before. He smiled warmly at me, apparently happy to see me get downstairs on my own.

“Look at you! How are you today, beautiful girl?” he said as he walked up to me to give me a wet kiss on the lips. He looked extremely handsome, wearing a tight black shirt, clean jeans and black boots. I guessed he took them from the house. His hair was slicked back again in the way I loved. I, on the other hand, felt less than beautiful with bandages all over me and stained sweatpants on. I didn’t feel good enough for him, that’s for sure.

“She’s hanging in there,” Em said in an icy tone. She had walked in from the kitchen and must have heard us talking in the living room. Jasper shot her a cold stare.

“Guys. Please,” I begged, not interested in dealing with their bullshit after all that I’d been through. "I know you two are having your issues with each other, but you both share a common factor and that is that you both care for me. The world is cruel and heartless enough already without you two bickering back and forth.”

Em set down the dish she had in her hand and closed her eyes to take a breath. “You’re right, Retta,” she said. “You’re so very right.” She walked over to Jasper and held out her hand for a truce, which he accepted and then pulled her in for a hug.

“I’m just not in my right state of mind,” he said. “That’s all.”

“Me either. But let’s focus on Retta and keeping her well,” Em said. “I’m so glad to see you stronger today. How was your sleep?” I didn’t want to stress myself or her out anymore, so I smiled.

“It was amazing,” I said jubilantly. “I slept great and feel so much better.”

We sat amicably together at the breakfast table that morning, eating old oatmeal and drinking tea. Em handed me a prenatal vitamin. I thanked Em for taking such good care of me.

“You know. If all goes well with the pregnancy,” I said. “I’d like you to be the godmother.” Jasper choked on his tea.

“Jasper!” I shouted. “What’s the problem with that? I thought we were past this?” I couldn’t stomach the nonsense right now.

“No, no, I’m sorry, honey,” he apologized. “The tea went down the wrong pipe that’s all. I think Em would be a great godmother. I think that’s a wonderful idea.” Em, who hadn’t taken her eyes off of Jasper, accepted the offer. She told me it would be her honor to hold the title of godmother for my first child.

We were all packed and into the jeep by 8 AM.  Our goal was to arrive in Missouri by the next night. Jasper seemed to be getting very anxious to get there, which he attributed to wanting to make sure me and the baby were past the border as soon as possible. Despite his anxious energy, he was surprisingly chipper after all that had happened. Em, who was typically extremely vibrant and hopeful, seemed to take on a more subdued mood. She sat low in the back seat of the jeep and stared out into nothingness.

I was anxious to get to Washington as well and get out of zombie territory for a chance at a normal life with my child. But I couldn’t quite shake an eerie feeling. I wanted so much to feel hopeful and optimistic, but this feeling prevented me from experiencing that emotion.  I put on my happy mask so as not to worry Em or Jasper because the last thing I wanted to do was cause any sort of confrontation between those two again.

I sat in the backseat and remained deep in thought for the first three hours of the trip, until we had to stop the car for a bathroom break and to put more gas in the tank. I was so thankful that we didn’t have to actually hunt for gas. We stopped the car on the highway on the outskirts of yet another abandoned town. I grabbed a roll of toilet paper from my bag, opened the door to the jeep, and slid out.

“Be right back,” I told the pair and walked around a large bush.

“Wait,” called Jasper. “Take the gun.” I nodded and walked over to take the gun from his hand. I went over to the bush about ten feet away, pulled down my pants, and bent over. When I bent my head forward, I felt something drip out of my nose. I wiped underneath with my sleeve, thinking it was just a little snot. I saw red on the sleeve of my long white t-shirt. There was no reason for my nose to bleed. I didn’t remember that being a side effect of pregnancy, and I never experienced nose bleeds in my life before.

I felt another drip roll out of my nostril and fall down on to the ground. I rubbed my nose again but then grabbed the roll of toilet paper and ripped a chunk off, rolled it up and applied pressure to my nose. While holding the toilet paper to my nose, I went to the bathroom. I pulled my pants back up and then walked back over to the jeep. I opened the door and slid back into the seat. Jasper and Em stared at me.

“Your nose is bleeding?” Em asked. Jasper looked over at me.

“Yeah,” I muttered, and pulled the tissue out of my nose to see if the blood flow had stopped, but it hadn’t. Another drip rolled out.

“Tilt your head back,” Jasper instructed me. “It will help the blood clot and stop bleeding.” I did.

“It’s a little odd,” I said with muffled words. “I’ve never had a nose bleed before.” Em squinted her eyes and look confused, but then turned around to open her car door.

“I have to shit,” she said, and slid out of the car. She disappeared with her gun and Jasper turned around to look at me. I pulled the tissue out again but my nose was still bleeding.

“I’m a little worried about this situation,” Jasper warned me, a little more gravely than I would have liked.

“What do you mean?” I asked him, confused. He looked at the window of the seat Em was sitting as if to make sure it was closed.

“I’m not sure what I mean,” Jasper whispered.

“You guys aren’t making any damn sense,” I huffed in frustration. First, Em was acting strange about Jasper, now Jasper was acting strange about Em. I knew they were worried about me and being overprotective, but I was getting sick of it.

“What do you mean we’re not making any damn sense?” Jasper inquired. He looked annoyed.

“Ever since the accident. You two are acting like you’re suspicious of each other. Like you’re afraid one another is going to hurt me or something.”

“Well, speaking of that, I have to tell you something.” He got out of the car and walked to the back of it, then quietly got in the backseat.

“What are you doing, babe?” I asked him, with my head still tilted back on the headrest. He put his hand on my thighs.

“I’m not sure I trust Em, and I need you to let me tell you why,” he said. I sighed, simply disgusted at their nonsense, acting like junior high kids who don’t like each other.

“When you had the accident,” he started. “You were unconscious in the bed upstairs at that house. Em was in the shower, and I fell asleep on the couch. I heard the shower shut off, but for a half an hour I waited for Em to come down but she didn’t, so I went upstairs to look for her. She was in the bathroom of your room, Retta,” he said staring at concerned. I didn’t understand where he was going with this.

“She didn’t hear me come in,” Jasper continued. “She was putting a syringe and some solution back in her bag. She was humming, Retta….like humming strangely…it was so weird. I cleared my throat, and she jumped nearly three feet in the air and looked at me as if I had caught her in the middle of something. I asked her what she was doing, and she said she was giving you some medicine to help you heal. I didn’t fully believe her, but at that point I didn’t distrust her. But now…with the weakness you’re feeling…the bloody nose,” he paused. “I’m wondering if that’s really what she was doing. I should have made her show me what she gave you.” My eyes must have been blank, so he continued.

“I know you want to believe that she is a good person and cares for you, Retta. But I am not so sure. I snuck in her bag when she left the house, and I couldn’t find the medicine she gave you or the syringe. I have no idea what she gave you. Besides, why would she want to come with us when she knows she isn’t going to get into Canada?” I began to reply, but I saw Em walk out from behind the bush.

“I’ll take care of it. Just keep quiet, I’ll talk to her.” The driver’s side door opened and Em glanced in. “You want me to drive?” she asked. Jasper jumped up.

“Um, no. No, it’s okay, I’ll drive,” he said to her. I knew Jasper didn’t trust her to drive. I wasn’t sure I did either at that point. Em got in the backseat and leaned over to pat me on the leg. She then reached up and rubbed her hand over my belly. It was a little off-putting for me at the moment and she must have caught wind of my skepticism.

“You okay?” she asked. She glanced up at Jasper. “Did I interrupt something?” I couldn’t find the right words to reply so I said nothing. Instead, Jasper interjected.

“We were just talking about Ethan,” Jasper told her through the rearview mirror. “It upset her a little.” Em looked back at me and smiled, then brushed my cheek with her finger and thumb. I held her gaze, and then looked back up at Jasper who was still looking at us through the rearview mirror.

“Oh, I get it,” she assured me. “How’s your nose?” I pulled the tissue away from my nose. Em’s eyes lowered to my nose as the bright red blood escaped my left nostril and rolled down over my lips, chin and on to my pants. Em looked into my eyes again. I didn’t have to say a word for Em’s skin to lose some of its color, which made me that much more skeptical of her. I felt like she might know something I didn’t, though I didn’t necessarily believe she wanted to hurt me. I heard the ignition rev and turned my bloody nose towards the window as a deafening silence fell upon the car.