Flip This Zombie - Jesse Petersen [66]
Plus, whoever had run with the vehicle before had installed one of those roof-to-floor divider guards that kept cargo from the back from falling into the seats in front of it. I wasn’t sure how long the flimsy metal would hold a zombie when tested, but it would certainly keep me safer from one should the sedative fade while I was bringing the beast back to Kevin.
“I put all the weapons I could find from the van into the back seat,” he explained.
I moved around and opened the passenger door behind the driver’s side. Sure enough, a big collection of my weapons and ammo were stacked neatly on the back seat and the floor, including the cannon I’d so coveted.
From what I could see Dave had only taken a few weapons and enough ammo to get him out of the area. He would have to resupply soon if he didn’t intend to come back to find me.
God, I hoped he was okay.
I blinked against weirdly sudden tears and slammed the door. “This is great, thanks so much.”
Kevin stepped toward me, his face intense and still filled with something more than simple friendly concern. “Just stay safe out there, okay?”
I nodded as I got into the front seat. He handed me the keys, his fingers lingering just a moment too long on mine before I got them and was able to close the door between us.
I rolled down the window. “Look,” I started after a second’s hesitation. “If something does happen to me, I have a couple of friends who might be able to help you. And also take care of The Kid—”
“Friends?” Barnes looked confused.
“Yeah.” I shook my head. “I mean, I might be hurt or worse and I’d hate for it to stop your progress. These people I’m talking about, they have hunting experience. The guy was apparently a chemist at some point. Their names are Josh and Drea, The Kid met them a couple of days ago—”
Barnes’s eyes went wide and he burst in to interrupt me. “No, no! Just be careful. Be careful and everything will be fine.”
I nodded even though what he said was anything but true. I started up the engine and waved as I pulled away from the warehouse, leaving him in my rearview mirror, just watching me go.
I clicked at the stereo in the hopes that there might be a CD in the changer to fill my brain with something other than thoughts of Dave and the obvious crush Kevin had on me.
The sound roared forth from a decent set of speakers. Damn, it had been a while because we’d been driving that ancient hulk of a van for so long. The CD in the changer was Alicia Keys. Nice.
As she sang to me about New York (did it still exist?) and lost loves and played out all her passion on the keys of her piano, I tried to relax and mentally prepare myself for what I was about to do.
I already knew a couple of things. First, I had to be on my best game. Fighting zombies alone was a huge risk, catching them alone… well, the idea of it danced dangerously on the edge of suicidal. But I’d basically given up my husband for this choice of a hope for the future. I wasn’t about to back out of it now and make that awful sacrifice be in vain.
Second, I wanted to snag a female zombie. Kevin had two males on his tables in the lab rapidly disappearing behind me, but a woman’s chemistry was different and I wanted him to be able to test his serums and theories on a wide variety of subjects.
Settled with those goals in mind, I drove onto the highway, but I have to be honest and tell you, I had no real plan in mind. And trust me, running without a plan is always a bad idea in the zombie-infested Badlands. Without one, you might as well just hang out a sign on the side of your car that says, “Eat me.”
And not in the way the women who sold themselves at the camps for food did. Gross.
But I plowed forward anyway, maneuvering my car until I found a school. Why a school?
Okay, so sexism says that more teachers are female than male. Lots of zombies stay in the general area of their origin. Plus, the school was in what was once a residential area. There had been