Cry Zombie Cry (I Zombie Book 5) (35 page)

“
Oh, for fuck’s sake, Otte, this isn’t elementary school. Speak up.”

“
That is not altogether true…sir.”

Faddig sucked in a deep, threatening breath.

“
What exactly do you mean by that?”

“
The baby, sir—”

Again, Faddig slammed his hands onto his desk and shouted.

“
They reclaimed the goddamn baby, you jackass. I saw the video feed of Jacob being taken away with my own fucking eyes.”

Otte spoke again, a crooked smile creeping across his face. “That may
seem
to be what you saw. But the baby the ZRT rescued was not the Jacob Plummer they were expecting.”

Faddig sat slowly. “I’m listening.”

Otte leaned forward and whispered. “The baby they recovered was a clone. We have the original in the lab unit. We are very close to unraveling the secret of its DNA.”

The commander released a gut-wrenching laugh. Finally, he returned to his usual over-severe countenance.

“
And exactly what does Bethany having a clone of her child do for us?”

It was Doctor Karem’s turn to speak.

“
Although the clone may seem identical, there are subtle differences in the makeup of the DNA. Most significant is the lack of immunization to the Mengele Virus.”

Faddig sobered up immediately. “Wait, are you saying the baby Bethany has doesn’t hold the immunity within its DNA?”

Karem’s smile spread wide across his face. “That is exactly what we are saying. If Bethany attempts to process a cure from Jacob’s DNA, it’ll never work.”

Commander Faddig stood and stared upward, into the cold fluorescent tubes of light. “You may very well have just saved your lives.”

“
There’s more,” Karem said.

Faddig nodded. “Continue.”

“
The clone is chipped. We’ll soon know their exact whereabouts.”

chapter 35 |
the devil you know

I woke from an unexpected nap to find Jamal hovering over the makeshift crib.

“
What are you doing?”

“
Don’t worry, I’m testing a theory.”

My legs protested as I stood, my eyes glazed with the delicate film of sleep. “Oh no; no theories are tested on my son without my permission.”

Jamal stood and turned, the look in his eyes not exactly what I was hoping to see. When I raised my eyebrows, he immediately raised his hands into a defensive posture.

“
Busted, Jamal. What gives?”

“
Bethany, you have to trust me on this. You might think me paranoid, but this baby was held hostage by the devil incarnate. They held him, tested him…we may never know the extent of what they did. At the moment, my main concern is that he’s not bugged or being traced. Maybe it was their plan all along—get Jacob back into our care so they could track us down and kill us in our sleep.”

The air was slowly sucked from my lungs. I so desperately wanted to shoot down Jamal’s theory. Unfortunately, he was right; the Zero Day Collective was in no way above using a baby as bait.

“
This wand is nothing more than a multifrequency detector. If Jacob is giving off any signal, we’ll know it immediately.”

Jamal handed me the wand so I could give it the once over.

“
You know I trust you implicitly.” I handed back the wand. “Go ahead.”

“
Are you sure?”

I nodded.

“
Do you want to be here for this?”

Again, I nodded.

Jamal switched the wand on. A soft blue glow lit up the tip of the device and a hissing sound gently poured from an embedded speaker. Even before the wand was within three feet of Jacob, the alarm sounded.

Every delicate thread of peace within my body was instantly burned to ash. In its place…rage.

I gently lifted Jacob from the crib and unwrapped him from his swaddling. Jamal had the perfect view of Jacob’s back and immediately reacted.

“
Fuck, Bethany,” was all he had to say.

I turned Jacob around to see the suture on the back of his right arm. It was fresh.

“
We have to remove that, now,” Jamal said.

Something in the recesses of my memory begged to be heard. I let my brain sift through the last year of my life to recall what caused me to break out into a sweat. It didn’t take my brain long to land on the memory of Commander Leamy.

“
Shit,” I whispered. “Jamal, I knew someone who was tagged by the Zero Day Collective. The ZDC operative warned him if he tried to remove the implant, it would release the Mengele Virus into his system and then explode. We have to do something.”

“
The first issue is non-extant, right? Jacob is immune to the virus.” Jamal stared, his pupils dilating, his eyes darting about. I gave him the moment he needed to complete whatever thoughts he was piecing together. It took little time before his glazed-over gaze returned to me. “That leaves only the explosion to deal with.”

I wrapped Jacob and placed him back into the makeshift crib. “No. I’m sorry, Jamal, but I’m not taking any chance with my baby; immune or not, we come up with an alternative.”

“
Simple.” Jamal began scratching notes on a piece of paper. “I’m going to create a blanket of RF interference that will prevent any signal from leaving Jacob. That will temporarily prevent them from tracking us. In the meantime, I’ll figure out a way to get that device out of him.”

An idea hit me fast and hard.

“
How difficult would it be for you to create an exact duplicate of the signal being transmitted from that chip? If you can do that, we can lead the Zero Day Collective astray.”

A smile slowly bent the corners of Jamal’s lips upward. “Bethany, words cannot describe your brilliance.”

Jamal returned his wand to his hand and made a few minor adjustments. As he waved it around Jacob’s arm, the noise fluctuated and crackled. Eventually he gave a glance at the wand’s readout.

“
Oh, that’s sad; they couldn’t even encrypt the signal. I can have a duplicate ready in twenty minutes. Do you have an idea how you want to lead them astray?”

“
Do I ever.”

*

It didn’t take us long to locate our target. We drove well outside the city limits of New Salt Lake City until we found a small horde of zombies.

“
Get me close enough that I can stick one of them with the plug.”

In his hand, Jamal held a metal rod. At the end of the rod was a barbed point that contained the RF transmitter. One quick stick with the rod and the transmitter would be buried in the rotting flesh of the beast. As far as the Zero Day Collective was concerned, Jacob was slowly moving about the state of Utah. Hopefully the zombie and his friends would keep walking until they were a few states away.

“
Got it!” Jamal tagged the Moaner and tossed the rod into the back of the Hummer. “Let’s head back home, B.”

He lifted a small box and flipped a switch. A tiny beep emanated from the box.

“
The ZDC isn’t the only one with tracking capabilities. I thought it might be smart to know where this fucker is heading…you know, so we don’t make the mistake of crossing paths again.”

The Hummer kicked up a rooster tail of sand as we left the area. The zombies faded into the horizon, and I released a squeal of delight.

“
Why, Bethany Nitshimi, I don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing you squeal.”

“
Oh, you haven’t? We must do something about that.”

Jamal leaned over and kissed my neck. Fire rose from my core to my fingertips.

I was alive, Jacob was back in my life…nothing could stop me now.

Jamal leaned forward and turned the radio on.

“
You’re listening to WZMB, Zombie Radio. Your p-p-personal soundtrack, to the end of the world. That was Yes and
‘
Big Generator.
’
To that I say, praise o’ praise this anthem. And speaking of anthems, I am fairly certain we all bore witness to the birth of the anthem for the new world order. During what is being called the Metal Meltdown, the Polish metal band UnSun premiered their latest song—a song dedicated to none other than Bethany Nitshimi. Once you got beyond the pure awesome sound of the song to wrap your brains around the words, you would swear you’d crawled inside the skin of Bethany and now understand the absolute hell the woman has been through to save our sorry asses. If you missed it the first time around, fear not, my undead nation, for I have one of the few copies of the studio version to exist. And, without further ado, I give you…
‘
Cry Zombie Cry.
’”

Jamal reached out to the radio. With shocking speed I reached up to stop his hand. Jamal turned and shook his head. I released his hand and he continued to the dial and proceeded to turn the volume as high as it would go without distorting the sound. The second time the chorus came around, Jamal and I sang along at the top of our lungs.

“
I know the reason, my heart beats your treason. Die inside and weave your lie…Cry Zombie Cry.”

When the song was over, Jamal reached over and placed his hand on top of mine.

“
We’re going to make it through this, Bethany.”

“
I know we will. We have to.”

chapter 36 |
from the cradle to the grave

The living humans were crushed by sheer numbers. Thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children forced into cages, like chickens on an egg farm. No one knew why. Everyone cried out for help until voices were hoarse and ragged. No matter how they cried out, no one came—not friend, not foe.

Eventually the living grew exhausted from banging against the bars and hearing their shouts echo to silence. At that point, they gave up and fell asleep, hoping death would release them from hell.

Commander Faddig watched from within a controlled, air-conditioned environment. Placed before him was a ceramic plate piled high with freshly cooked paneer karahi—a favorite dish from his childhood. With each delicious bite, pieces of memory fell into place. His mother, her flowing sari and the smell of her jasmine perfume. The sound of music and the laughter of his father and siblings.

Peace. Well before he was drunk from the damning well of corruption to become the leader of the only organization that held a modicum of power over the innocent lives of the living.

“
Sir.” A voice dragged Faddig from his reverie. The commander simply held up a hand to silence the interloper.

Finally, after the last bite of cheese had made its way down Faddig’s throat, he turned to the young soldier.

“
Yes?”

“
The Cradle is ready.”

Faddig nodded, picked up his sat phone, and dialed.

“
Now,” was all Faddig said.

Both men focused their attention on the bank of monitors. The unsuspecting sleepers were torn from either dream or nightmare by the sound of moaning. The cage doors rattled open to give the zombies access to the ripe flesh.

The undead converged on the living as a neon-green mist sprayed from reconfigured sprinkler systems.

Screams distorted the monitor speakers. Faddig grabbed a tablet and tapped out the commands to mute all sound.

“
Their screams bring me nightmares,” Faddig said.

The young soldier handed Faddig a card reader. Faddig removed a wallet from his back pocket and removed a plastic key card.

“
From hell’s heart, I stab at thee.” Faddig let the words settle before he swiped his card through the reader. On the screen, a blaring sound replaced that of the feeding beasts. Every zombie dropped to its knees to beat its head on the concrete floor. A brilliant light pulsed along with the sounds.

And then…the screens went black.

The sat phone rang. Faddig answered. From the other end of the connection a voice spoke measuredly.

“
It worked. The Genesis Cradle has taken effect.”

Faddig disconnected, sat the phone down, and smiled.