Flip This Zombie - Jesse Petersen [65]
I forced a smile as I allowed him to lead me to the hallway and back toward the room where I could sleep. As much as I tried to convince myself that there was nothing to be worried about, my thoughts nagged at me. I doubted I’d get much of the sleep I so desperately needed.
And if I did, I couldn’t imagine that my dreams would be pleasant.
Dress for success. Also arm yourself for it.
By the time the next morning came, I actually felt a lot better. My head was no longer foggy and a long day of rest (my first since the outbreak happened) had done me more good than I’d thought it would.
I had even managed to purge myself of most of my doubts about Dr. Barnes after many talks and explanations of his behavior, mainly to myself, but sometimes with The Kid shrugging and “I dunno”-ing at my side.
Helpful, that one.
Now Kevin and I rode up the elevator together. The Kid wasn’t with us. He was still pouting over being left out of my hunt for the day and refused to speak to me, even to say good-bye. So it was just us. Alone.
I looked in his direction as we passed from the bright lights of the lab area up into the darkness of the chamber that would eventually lead to the warehouse above. As the green and red lighting system buzzed past I could see the tension around his mouth and eyes.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay alone?” he asked as the platform reached the top and the door above us opened to flood the area with sunshine streaming in from the holes and collapsed section of the warehouse roofing. It was kind of pretty, really, as the light caught on the dust.
I nodded. “I’ll be extra careful.”
“I could come with you,” he offered.
I looked at him in his stark white lab coat and his crooked glasses. Sure, I knew he could handle a weapon to some extent, although I’d never technically seen him fire anything except for the remote guns and there wasn’t a whole lot of aim involved in that. Somehow I couldn’t imagine a scenario where he would be more help than harm.
Unlike Dave, who could always be depended upon when the going got tough.
Plus there was the little problem that if Barnes got hurt or killed or turned, there would be no one left to further develop his curative serum. Any future without zombies, at least any future I could see at the moment, would vanish along with Kevin’s mind and body.
“I have the tranq liquid,” I reminded him with false cheer as I lifted up the dart gun he’d provided for me just an hour before. “And there’s always the big cannon to use in a bad pinch.”
I frowned and looked off into the distance toward the lonely road that led out of here. “As long as Dave didn’t take it from the van when he left, that is. I’ll be fine.”
I didn’t feel fine thinking about the hunt without my partner in crime and life, but there was no point reiterating that to the doctor or myself.
“Speaking of the van…” Kevin began as we walked out into the sunshine.
I stared as he motioned his arm toward a big SUV parked right in front of the warehouse. It was a little banged up and dusty as hell, but it had a huge frame mounted to the front for pushing other vehicles around and was more than roomy enough in the storage area for a zombie, maybe even two.
Plus, it was way better than our van, which I now saw flipped on its roof over on the side of the road. The driver’s side was almost entirely caved in and I forced myself to look away and not think about what exactly that could have done to my body if I hadn’t been lucky as hell.
“What in the world?” I gasped as I hurried toward the new vehicle.
Kevin clicked the automatic lock button on the clicker in his hand and let me open it up.
“It was one of the ones left parked by our staff in a warehouse just behind ours,” he explained. “See, I do get out occasionally.”
I flung open the back hatch of the vehicle and peered inside. This was a full-sized model and there was almost the same amount of room as you found in the beds of some