Zombie High Chronicles (Book 1) (7 page)

I open my mouth to protest, to tell him that it has to be tonight, but kneeling there across the street from my mother I stop to wonder if maybe running isn’t the best option. What if I’m wrong? What if she really does know something and I ruin it by rushing head first like I always do?

If there is one thing I can’t do, that’s put her in danger. Whoever that guy is she singled him out and I have to trust that she knows what she’s doing. I will stay and watch, but the instant I suspect foul play I’m pulling her out.

“You good?” Flynn asks.

I take several calming breaths before I finally nod. “Yeah. At least I know where she’s at.”

Flynn squeezes my shoulder once before stepping away.

“I’m wiped out man and we’ve got that Physics test tomorrow.” Vaughn stifles a yawn. “Can we crash now?”

It is hard for me to turn around and walk away from my mom but I do it for her. Even though I’ve spent my life bucking authority, I’ve always had a soft spot for her. I guess most guys do when it came to their mothers. There is that natural instinct to protect what belongs to us and she’s the only thing left in the world left fighting for. I’ll be darned if I’m going to let anyone hurt her.

Shooting one last glance back at my mom, I see that she has picked herself up. I watch as she steeples her hands in front of her face and sucks in a deep breath, just as she always does when she is trying to push aside negativity and settle herself. My mom isn’t an overly spiritual woman but she has spent a lifetime using yoga and meditation to center herself. I hope that it works for her tonight.

I turn to follow Flynn and Vaughn, knowing that whatever she is up to, she has things under control. But as I cross through a back yard and head towards my group home, I vow that if I ever saw that old prick again I will make sure he thinks twice about feeling up my mom again.

5

An unlikely partnership.

The next morning I arrive early at the testing center and go around to the side entrance where I try to appear casual as I hang back when workers began to slowly drift in from different areas of the Zone. From the corner of my eye, I spy a couple of doctors conversing in hushed tones and animated hand motions as they hurry into the building, using their key cards to gain access to the restricted area. Other nurses follow suit, barely jamming their arms into their lab coats before they reach the door at a near dead run.

I can’t hear any sirens or alarm to alert them to an emergency but each of the staff seems to be in a hyper state of excitement. That can’t be good. I turn when I hear the shuttle bus pull back onto the street and head north.

My mom wasn’t with this group. Has she been moved to another facility and I didn’t realize? Maybe her secret rendezvous last night has promoted her to a new position.

“This is starting to become a habit of yours.”

I turn to place the feminine voice that calls from just over my shoulder and come eye to eye with Teegan. Her stomach looks enormous up close, pulling her tank top taut enough for me to see her belly button pushing out the wrong direction. I don’t know how she can walk without toppling right over.

“Are you watching me?”

She shrugs and wipes at her forehead where sweat beads along her hairline despite the cool morning air. I’ve heard before that pregnant girls’ hormones tend to be all whacked out. I’ve also heard to stay clear in case they need a punching toy to work through some of their emotional spikes. That’s a job I will not be signing up for.

“It’s only fair after you gaped at me on the bus yesterday, don’t you think?”

I smirk at her gumption and lean back against the wall, propping one boot against the brick as I cross my arms over my chest. “Yeah, I was staring. So what?”

“So it’s rude.”  She moves to walk past me but I hold out a hand to stop her.

“Perhaps, but it’s also useful. I happened to know that your arms sure look a lot prettier than mine.” I roll up my sleeve to show her my bruising and to her credit she does wince.  “They are treating you pretty good, aren’t they?”

This time, she lowers her gaze and shifts her weight away from me.
Bingo!

“Your name is Teegan, right?” She nods and unconsciously rubs circles over the top of her stomach. “I’m Roan. It’s nice to meet you.”

With a sigh that is deep enough to actually shift her entire belly in one movement, she rolls her eyes and shoots me down with a single look. “Let’s drop the whole fake friend thing, ok?  I don’t have time for this and we both know you aren’t that type of guy.”

And that’s the moment that I realize that I actually like her.

“Fair enough.” I drop my smile and push back upright until we are nearly bumping bellies. “I know they’re treating you differently than the rest of us and I think we both know why.”

She remains silent but attentive so I continue on. “They want your baby and I can’t let that happen.”

Teegan’s burst of laughter grates on my nerves, making me second guess my glowing opinion of her.

“I’m sorry if that seems brash,” she fans herself, “but what exactly do you plan to do to stop them? They have guns, manpower and doctors who actually know something about labor. And you? You’re just some mentally damaged punk with conspiracy theories and zero proof to back them up.”

I close my eyes and force myself to take a deep breath. I might have deserved that low blow but she only gets one on account of being as bloated as a freakin’ whale.

“We both know you don't care jack squat about me or my baby.” She crosses her arms over her chest but the pose looks awkward in respect to her swollen stomach. “We both know that you want something from me, otherwise, you'd have tucked your tail between your legs and ran long ago.”

At this point, I have to remind myself for a second time that it probably isn’t a good idea to take a swing at a pregnant girl, especially around here.

“Who told you about the Dead Head?” I ask through gritted teeth, trying to let her snide comment roll off. I've knocked out guys for less, but she isn't a guy, and she is right...I do need her.

“Caught that, did you? Maybe there are some brains buried under all of that muscle, after all.” When she smiles, looking me up and down, I stare her down. Let her look. Most people like to underestimate me but if we are going to be partners she needs to know that I can take a punch. I earned my thick skin a long time ago.

“Let's see,” she taps her lips as she thinks, “I think Darby blabbed to me, but I’m pretty sure she heard it from Gracen who was shadowing Austin at the time he was pulling details out of Vaughn. You know how that guy likes to talk.”

“Of course.” The urge to hit something mounts with each name that she mentions. “So, the whole school knows, then?”

“Pretty much,” she nods but her smile deepens when she leans in close enough for me to smell baby powder on her. I am pretty sure that is supposed to be used
after
the baby is born but whatever. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t believe you.”

“Why should you? You just said that I’m a mentally damaged punk conspiracy theorist.”

“I did.”  She walks several steps beyond me and waves at one of the soldiers standing guard inside the building. I hear a buzz before the door lock clicks and she grabs the handle. “But I also think aliens killed JFK so I guess I’m gullible enough to believe you too.”

With that she opens the door and is gone, leaving me thoroughly confused as to whose side she is really on as I head back toward the front. I get in line, do my morning shuffle, wave to Short Stack three lines over, berate the soldier and doctor just for the hell of it as they take pleasure in jabbing the needle straight through my arm and then exit the rear of the building with a feeling of having been violated.

As I stand off to the side, waiting for the bus and adamantly not meeting any of the numerous gazes that glance my way, I try to formulate a new plan. If I’m going to stick around here and let my mom do whatever it is that she needs, I’m going to have to work to get Teegan on my side as an inside man...err woman.

She can see parts of the lab that I have zero access to. Without her knowing it, she may have already seen a clue that can make all of this make sense. Besides, I saw how uncomfortable my questions made her. She was scared that I was right and I’d bet a week’s worth of MRE’s that she isn’t planning on handing her baby over without a fight. I am also  confident that she could take out a couple of nurses on her own if given a reason to. She’s pretty fiery for a preggo.

The hour-long bus ride to school passes in a blur as I sift through my thoughts along on the back seat. There are many of them, scattered in so many different directions that I am sure I look spaced out. Even Sammy seems to take a hint and goes to pester Bex, the goth girl he is hot after.

This time, when I walk up the front steps to Zombie High I barely even look at the spray painted lettering.

“Earth to Roan. Come in, Roan.”  I look up to see Ember standing directly in front of me, waving her hands before my eyes.

“What do you want?”

“We need to talk.”  She falls into step with me as we walk by a new guard station that’s been erected at the front door. A metal shark cage looking thing sits off to the side, filled with guns, ammo and grenades. I can hear welders working down the hall and glimpse two men working on the basement door. If there was any doubt before about whether or not I was right about this becoming a fallback bunker, it’s gone now.

“Yeah? Get in line.” I cast a scowl in the direction of three younger girls who are whispering together and blatantly staring at me. “Thanks to Vaughn’s big mouth I’ve become a walking freak show overnight.”

“You were already that,” she laughs and surprises me when she touches my arm. “Vaughn just added a little pizazz to the mix. So now they see you as broody, dark and intriguing.”

I shake her off with disgust and try not to notice that the white shirt she’s wearing today does nothing to hide the fact that she’s wearing a lacy black bra. Did she plan that?  I bet she did, the little witch.

I was right to be wary of her. She is just pretty enough to get away with anything if she bats those eyelashes, but she is far from the damsel in distress.  If she weren’t looking at me with those same doe eyes, I’d almost appreciate her cunning.

“Look,” I grab onto her arm and pull her off to the side once we reach the second floor. “I don’t have time for your game. Just tell me what you want.”

“I want the truth.”

“About what?” I rub my temples, feeling one hell of a headache brewing again. It’s becoming a daily occurrence now. All of this attention is driving me up the wall. Do these people not grasp the concept of what “loner” means?

“About why you are still here. We both know you hate this place and you can obviously take care of yourself,” she lowers a pointed glare to where my hand is squeezing her arm. I release her and shove my hands into my jeans pocket instead. I don’t like how easily she gets to me. “I get that you want to help your mom, I really do, but there’s more to it, isn’t there?”

“So what if there is? It’s not exactly any of your business, is it?” I maneuver around her, wishing that there was a fire alarm that I could pull so she would be carried away by a human flood instead of following after me to continue her badgering.

“It’s ok to admit that you’re scared.”

I round on her so fast she smashes her face into my chest. She pushes back on my stomach but not before I detect a slight hitch in her breath when she feels the rigid muscles that lie beneath my shirt that comes from years spent training. I smirk and find myself enjoying how flustered she becomes.

“I don’t scare easily.” I stretch out a hand to brush my finger down the length of her arm. Damn, if she isn’t nice to look at, with her flushed cheeks and rapid breathing that draws my eyes to the outline of her black bra once more. “Maybe there is another reason why I stuck around. Maybe I wanted this to happen.”

Pushing her back against the wall, I tower over her, staring into her eyes and enjoying her reaction as I press into her. She swallows hard and starts to speak but can’t quite seem to find the words.

“Or maybe not.” I pull back mere inches from brushing against her lips. “See you around, Ember.”

When I feel her eyes glued to my back as I walk away I smile. Two can play this game and it’s one I don’t intend on losing.

Perhaps a part of me should feel bad but that girl needs to learn something real quick: I’m not the type of guy a girl takes home to daddy. I’m rough around the edges for a reason and I sure as hell am not one of those bad boys who turn out to have a heart of gold buried beneath layers of sarcasm. I don’t care about her. I’m in this for me and my mom. That’s it.

Over the next three hours I suffer through a Physics test that is all greek to me, a history test that seems insanely pointless since our country pretty much no longer exists, and another episode of “Let’s prove that every guy in the world is not as romantic as Shakespeare.” By the end of lunch, I am on edge and find myself surrounded by no less than twelve people, with others encroaching space around the outer ring.

I am forced to meet Darby, who reminds me far too much of a chipper chipmunk with puffed up cheeks and a squeaky voice to take her seriously. Gracen has a decent figure, dirty blond hair and is obviously infatuated with Austin, who appears to be about as clueless as a Dead Head.  Roderick Strauss proves to be quite the character. Wide rimmed rectangular glasses perch high on his thin, straight nose, making his eyes seem bigger than they should be. He sits like he’s had a board shoved down the back of his shirt with his hands clasped primly in his lap. One look at him tells me that he is a certifiable know-it-all. If he says one word I will happily rearrange his teeth for everyone’s benefit.

Bex and Sammy join the group as well today but I’m pretty sure that Sammy is there only because he’s still drooling all over Bex. And when I followed Bex’s covert glances I would wager she is only there because of Camari Jung, an asian girl that I’ve seen before but never cared to pay much attention to. Either way, ole’ Sammy or any other guy will never stand a chance with Bex.

Isa sits sideways on Tyrel’s lap with her arms wrapped around his neck. I try not to look their way in case I might vomit as she giggles in his ear and strokes the small opening in the first of his shirt. Teegan sits close enough that she can hear without making it look too obvious. She is the only one that I am happy to see. Kinsley makes sure to sit front and center so that everyone can get a good eyeful of her low cut top but she spends the entire lunch hour filing her nails like the prima donna I know her to be. Still...I don’t mind the view.

Looking around the assembled group, I have a sinking feeling that if I were to stand up to go take a piss I would have a swollen entourage following behind.

“So, what’s the plan?” Flynn asks and everyone falls silent as they look to me.

“Plan? Who said I have a plan?”  I shove back my half eaten MRE and am not the least bit surprised when Vaughn pounces on it. The guy doesn’t have an ounce of fat on him but he eats like a freakin’ cow. I snatch it back with a warning glare even though I have no intention of finishing it. It’s the principle of the matter.