Authors: Megan Berry
Zomb-Pocalypse 3 (19 page)
“What do we do?” I
screech at Ryan when Barry started bubbling and choking in his own blood, and
Ryan shakes his head helplessly—he has tears in his eyes.
“He’s
suffering...” Ryan chokes as he pulls his gun from his belt and presses it to
Barry’s temple. His hands are shaking so badly that I’m scared he’s going to
miss. Ryan sits there, looking down at Barry, frozen. I know in my heart that I
can’t let him go through with this. I gently push his hand away; Ryan is too
good to have something like this on his conscience.
I tug the gun from
Ryan’s hand and gently press it to Barry’s forehead. “I’m so sorry Barry,” I
choke out as I sob even harder—I force myself to pull the trigger and the
bubbling gasps stop right away.
“Jane!” I look up
through my tears and see everyone running towards us. They must’ve arrived
during the firefight; I didn’t notice with everything that was going on with
Barry. Silas reaches me first and pulls me to my feet, away from the body, and
wraps his arms around me, holding me tight. My dad comes next and pushes Silas
out of the way and gathers me up in his arms.
Silas tosses off
his jacket, rips a strip off his shirt, and presses it to my cheek, and I
realize in a kind of detached way that blood is gushing down my cheek.
“Baby, why did you
do that?” Dad sobs into my hair, and for a minute I’m convinced that he hates
me for murdering Barry.
“We couldn’t help
him, Dad. He was hurting so much,” I sob, and my Dad holds me even tighter.
“I know, you did
the right thing, but you didn’t have to do it. I’m so sorry that I failed you.
I wish I could’ve been here on time so I could’ve done it in your place,” Dad
sobs even harder, and I go boneless with relief. He doesn’t hate me or think
I’m a monster. He is feeling guilty that he wasn’t here to help me.
“It’s okay, Dad,”
I murmur in his ear, my throat raw and sore from crying. “I’ve had to do it
before,” I confess, and I feel him stiffen in surprise. “That’s why I didn’t
want Ryan to have to do it,” I manage to get out as everything becomes too much
effort and my world fades to black.
I wake up wearing
a halo of pain that seems to engulf my entire body at first, but after several
deep breaths I realize that it’s mostly centered in my head. I raise my fingers
and gingerly poke at my face. I feel a rough patch across my cheek that feels
tight and itchy. Someone grabs me and gently pulls my hand away, and I realize
that it’s Silas. I’m lying on the couch back at the cabin and everyone is
gathered around, staring down at me with varying degrees of worry on their
faces.
“What happened?” I
ask, and it feels like trying to talk around a mouthful of cotton.
“You fainted,” Mom
says, coming over to sit on the edge of the couch, and she strokes my hair back
away from my face. “Silas gave you some stitches on your cheek...” She stops
and has to hold back a sob. I look over at Silas and grimace.
“Again?” I ask,
referring to the first time I met Silas, which was also the first time he had
to stitch me up.
“I’m afraid so,”
he says, giving me a half-attempt at a smile. “Lucky for you, I’m awesome at
stitching, so you’ll be good as new in no time,” he jokes, and I’m not sure if
I should believe him or not. Silas isn’t usually the type to try and soften the
blow, so maybe it’s much worse than I think.
“What happened to
Barry?” I ask, and everyone freezes like they think I forgot that I shot him
and now they’ll have to break the news to me again. I shake my head and it
hurts. “Not that part,” I say. “How did it even happen?”
Silas’s face
registers understanding. “The barrel of the gun exploded. He put a twenty gauge
shell in a twelve gauge rifle. The shell slipped down and became lodged in the muzzle.”
Silas shakes his head. “It happens more than you’d think—when he reloaded and
the proper shell struck the obstruction, the pressure blew up the chamber—I
checked his pockets, he had two different cartridges mixed up in there.”
“Such a waste of
life,” Regg mutters, looking visibly upset, and I’m sure they are both thinking
of ways to blame themselves.
Our conversation
is interrupted by sobbing and I struggle to sit up on the couch. Ryan and Silas
both help me up, and I turn to see Sunny coming down the stairs with Abby.
“I’m sorry,” Abby
apologizes. “She is just so upset, I can’t get her to stop crying. I thought
maybe letting her see that Jane is okay would make her feel better...” Abby
shrugs helplessly.
I open my arms up
to her and Sunny runs and jumps, bumping my cheek with her head and making me
see stars for a minute, but I don’t mention it. “It’s going to be okay,” I
murmur into the little girl’s hair, but Sunny shakes her head.
“No. It hurts,”
she says, still sobbing, and I look down at her in confusion.
“Did you get
hurt?” my mom asks, moving in closer to rub Sunny’s back, and she nods.
“Did you get
bitten?” I ask, barely managing to contain my budding hysteria.
Sunny shakes her
head. “I don’t know,” she admits.
I try and paste a
smile on my face so I don’t freak her out, but it’s taking ALL of my
self-control. “Show us where it hurts,” I ask, and Sunny snuffles as she
gingerly rolls up her sleeve and shows us the perfect imprint of a bite on her
forearm. Blood is weeping from the wound, so it definitely broke the skin. I
quickly wrap her in a hug so she won’t be able to see my face crumple.
I look around at
the rest of our group and there isn’t one person in the room that isn’t
affected. Even Regg is letting the tears run down his face, not bothering to
wipe them away. Silas looks like he’s seeing a ghost, and I know he’s thinking
about his little brother right now.
“This can’t be
happening,” Abby sobs, but it is.
“You’ll be okay,”
I lie through my teeth, and Sunny pulls out of my hug to stare up at me
solemnly.
“Do you promise?”
she asks, and it breaks my heart.
“Sunny?” Regg says
to distract her, and thankfully it works and she turns towards him. “When did
you get hurt?” he asks, and she looks thoughtful.
“When they chased
us into the tree—I didn’t run fast enough,” she says, her lower lip trembling.
Ryan blinks in
surprise. “But that was hours ago,” he protests, and we all look at Sunny in
surprise.
“How long does it
take?” I ask, hating to even ask, but I haven’t really seen anyone turn yet,
with the exception of Kyle back at the farmhouse, but he turned from a scratch.
“Anyone I’ve ever
seen get bit, always turns within the hour,” Silas mutters.
“We were in that
tree at least four hours,” Ryan protests again, surprising the hell out of me,
and we all stare at Sunny in wonder. Even though I haven’t known her for very
long, I’ve come to love this little girl; when she turns, it’s going to shatter
my soul.
Silas walks over
and examines her arm, staring at it intently. “It’s definitely a bite,” he
confirms before walking over to pace in front of the fire that someone must’ve
lit while I was unconscious.
A heavy knock
interrupts our strained silence, and I know before Regg even opens it that it’s
Jack. Jack takes one look at everyone and a look of alarm passes over his face.
“What happened
since the last time I saw you?” he asks, and Regg has to clear his throat a few
times before he can explain.
“Sunny was
bitten,” he chokes out, and Jack’s face falls and he claps his hand on Regg’s
shoulder.
Jack walks over
and stares down at Sunny, examining her. Even though I really like Jack, I just
want him to go away. “You know, she could be immune,” he says, and we all stare
at him in shock.
“What in the hell
are you talking about?” I demand stubbornly, refusing to let myself have hope.
“There ain’t
nobody immune to this shit,” Silas agrees, and Jack looks at us all in surprise
for a moment before he starts pulling his shirt off.
“What in the hell
are you doing?” Regg asks when Jack tosses his shirt onto the couch and turns
around for us all to see his back.
“Left shoulder,”
Jack instructs, and my eye is drawn there against my will. I blink in surprise,
not one hundred percent sure what it is I’m looking at.
“I was bit the
first day of the infection,” Jack confesses, and we all lean in closer to stare
at the obvious bite mark on his shoulder. It’s a raised bump and the imprint
where the teeth connected is completely black. It almost looks like a tattoo.
Regg leans
forward, runs his hand over the mark, and shakes his head in wonder. “I can
feel the impression of the teeth,” he says, and Jack nods.
“You should’ve
felt the damn impression the day that fucker bit me,” he counters.
“How did it
happen?” Ryan demands. “She doesn’t even look sick. Did you ever get sick?” he
asks, and Jack shakes his head.
“The damn virus
never touched me, just gave me some messed up dreams and after a week or so,
the scar just turned black and stayed that way.” Jack reaches for his shirt and
shrugs back into it.
I stare at Sunny
and feel the first ray of true hope that I’ve felt in a long time. I don’t want
to freak out and drop my guard, but Sunny doesn’t seem to be falling ill. She
isn’t fevered, or chilled, and she definitely isn’t vomiting blood.
I grip Silas’s
hand so hard that I hear his fingers crack. “She has to be okay,” I whisper to
him so Sunny won’t hear, and Silas nods, letting out a shaky breath.
“Only time will
tell...”
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Coming October 2016
Zomb-Pocalypse 4 coming January 2017
