Escaping Grace: A Turning Grace Novel (6 page)

We walked around and behind the Laguna hut to the trail that led to the beach. There were three other people standing in a circle talking. Maddi was holding her boogie board and dressed in a pink, one-piece bathing suit. A girl with black hair cut into a bob stood behind Maddi, tying her hair in a ponytail. This was the same girl I had seen the day before. She was wearing really short jean shorts and a purple bathing suit top. She was very attractive. Tan and thin, but it was a I-workout-every-day kind of thin. You could almost see a six-pack on her flat stomach.

A guy with spiky, sun-kissed hair had his head down looking at his phone. He was shirtless, also very tan. I tried not to stare, but his chest and body were almost exactly like…Tristen’s. He was thin but not too thin, with a muscular undertone. Except, he somehow seemed sexier. Maybe it was the skin-tight wet suit that was only halfway on. Or the neon yellow surf board he was clasping to his side.

I looked away quickly and over to Tristen, who was staring off at the beach. I grabbed his hand and intertwined my fingers with his. He glanced at me and smiled.

“Hey, guys,” Destiny greeted as we reached the other three.

“Hi, Grace,” Maddi flashed her braces at me. She was a happy little girl, wasn’t she?

The short-haired girl looked me up and down before glancing over to Tristen and introducing herself. “Hi, I’m Charlie.”

Now that I was able to get a good look at her…wow! She was gorgeous! Like an actress or something. Her neck-length, straight, dark hair was cut to perfection, giving her a layered look in the back; a standard bob haircut. She had a little bit of a bang in the front, and it framed her face exquisitely. Her face was slim, giving her high cheekbones and a soft chin that led to her long, slender neck. She had dark, arched eyebrows and her lips were a beautiful shade of pink. She looked exotic, as if she could be Brazilian or maybe even from another world.

I stared into her eyes, taking in the icing on the cake: she had one green eye and one blue eye. How interestingly cool and sexy!

She was intimidating. And I wondered why the hell she just completely ignored me.

I smiled at her. “I’m Grace.”

“Yeah, I know.”

She couldn’t have possibly given me any more attitude.

“See, I told you everyone has been waiting for you,” the guy said in his foreign voice, not looking up from his phone.

“Is everyone ready to get in the water? Come on, let’s go!” Maddi began skipping toward the beach.

“Maddi, be careful!” Charlie called out to her.

We all started to walk to the beach when suddenly I realized how impolite I was being.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Everyone this is Tristen. Tristen, this is Destiny, and that’s Maddi,” I said, pointing to the excited little red-head running to the ocean.

Destiny shook his hand. “Hey, man.”

I was learning fast that Destiny wasn’t your ordinary girl. Besides all the darkness she seemed to like, she wasn’t very feminine either.

The foreign guy finally looked up from his phone. “Hello, mate. Ian.”

Mate? Okay, he was Australian. Maybe. Oh, and woah! He was…very cute. Pretty boy. That was all I had to say.

We reached the shore. Maddi was already in the water splashing around with her boogie board. Charlie went straight into the ridiculously blue water to meet up with her.

Ian set his phone and board down to slide into the top portion of his wet suit. Once he zipped up, he jogged out into the water. He dove in, laying down flat on his board and using his arms to paddle out further.

There were waves in the distance, crashing every few minutes.

“There’s a storm coming,” Destiny informed us, taking a seat on a long log partially buried in the sand.

There was another long log parallel to the one she was sitting on and a pile of charred wood in between, reminiscent of some sort of campsite. They must sit out here late at night and hang by the fire. I chuckled to myself at that thought, imagining zombies gathered around making s’mores and playing guitars.

Tristen and I took a seat on the opposite side of Destiny. We were both wearing jeans and t-shirts, not really dressed the part for the beach. But neither was Destiny.

“You don’t go into the water?” I asked, gesturing to her full-on gothic gear.

“Nah, I like being pale.”

“This is nice, huh?” Tristen whispered into my ear.

I turned to him, our faces so close I could kiss him. “Yeah, it is.”

The warm breeze blew in our hair, and the smell of salt filled my lungs. It was the afternoon now and the sun was at its highest in the sky.

The beach was really beautiful once I was actually on it. It was like one of those calendar photos of a tropical island. I glanced over at the compound, noticing then how surrounded we were by the thick rainforest.

“So, how long have you two been together?”

“Um…not very long,” I answered, slightly embarrassed to answer honestly. “We have known each other for a little while, though.”

“Cool. Tristen, you don’t care that she’s a Zombrid?”

“A what?” he returned her question, leaning in and twisting his head as if to hear her better.

Destiny laughed. “Sorry, you don’t know the lingo yet.” She pulled a cigarette and a lighter out of her black backpack and lit it.

“So, what is that?” I asked.

She inhaled and blew the smoke out with one harsh exhale before answering. “It’s a zombie hybrid. Half human, half zombie.”

Well, that was new. I had never even heard of that in any of my favorite zombie movies.

“Are all the patients here Zombrids?”

She took another drag before answering. “Yup. We are all Zombrids. Thanks to you, Grace.”

I was suddenly uncomfortable.

“It wasn’t her fault,” Tristen shot back.

“Oh, no! I’m not
blaming
her or anything! Really, it’s thanks to Grace that we are all here right now. Alive. Well, halfway alive.”

“What happened to you? How did you get injected with the serum?” I felt like I was prying a little, but who cared?

“You mean…how did I die? You don’t get injected unless you’ve died already.”

I nodded. That made sense. It was a drug to revive you.

By the way, I never in a million years thought I would be asking someone how they died. Unless maybe if I was in heaven.

“Overdose,” she answered plainly.

Tristen and I didn’t respond. I never hung out with anyone who did drugs. There were people at school who smoked marijuana and I was sure did other things, but Phoebe and I didn’t care to be around them. She did, however, smoke pot with one of her bad boy boyfriends once. But she said it made her feel like she was talking in slow motion the whole time, so she never touched it again. Drinking was pretty much as far as we would go.

My heart hurt at the thought of Phoebe.

Destiny continued. “My parents were deadbeats. My life sucked in Chicago. So I got high. A lot.” She seemed very open about her past and completely comfortable to share. To most, goth equaled socially awkward and introverted. But she didn’t seem that way at all.

I glanced over at Maddi and Charlie playing in the water, then at Ian in the distance. He was sitting on his surf board now, I was assuming waiting to catch a good wave. “What about them?”

Destiny looked in the same direction. “Maddi fell and hit her head during recess at school. I always said those monkey bars were dangerous. She’s the youngest Zombrid here.”

“How old is she?” Tristen asked.

“Eleven. Charlie is twenty-six. She was a hairstylist in Florida. Suicide. Well, she tried to commit suicide.”

I shot Destiny a look. “Really?”

“Yeah. Something about her boyfriend screwing her over. She doesn’t like to talk about it much. As a matter of fact, she doesn’t care too much for you.”

Great. Another Sonny.

“Why?” Tristen asked, pulling me in closer to his body.

Destiny pulled out another cigarette and lit it off the one that was already going. “If you’re trying to commit suicide, you want to die. She feels like it’s Grace’s fault that she’s not completely dead.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I know. But whatever. I wouldn’t pay attention to her. Anyway, Ian died in a surfing accident. Go figure.”

“Man, that sucks,” Tristen stated.

“Where is he from?” I asked. The “mate” kind of gave it away, but I wanted to make sure.

“I know. His accent is hot, huh? He’s from Australia.”

I looked out at him again.

“Aren’t you scared to be with her?” Destiny asked bluntly.

Tristen squeezed me before answering. “No, I’m not.”

“Well, good. She won’t eat you. Unless…” She paused to take a drag.

I waited patiently, but after the first second, I couldn’t any longer. “Unless what?”

“Unless you can smell him.”

“What do you mean smell me?”

“Geez, no one has told you anything yet, huh? Dr. Roberson is usually pretty good at explaining all of this. He’s been kind of busy lately, though. Your arrival was a big deal.”

Before she could answer, Maddi and Charlie came to join us on the log. “Maddi, come let me put your hair back into a ponytail, sweetie.” Maddi hopped over to Charlie and sat in the sand in front of her.

“Charlie, would you care to explain why Grace won’t eat her boyfriend?”

“Why? Dr. Roberson hasn’t told his Golden Subject any of that yet?” she asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.

I could feel Tristen’s eyes on me before he leaned into my ear. “Bitch,” he whispered.

I nodded and smiled. He gripped me tighter around my waist and kissed my cheek.

“Fine, I’ll explain,” Destiny said, rolling her eyes. “There are certain triggers in our Zombrid brains that cause the Need.”

“What kind of triggers?” Tristen asked. I was sure he’d benefit from this information. After all, he was a human surrounded by flesh-eating Zombrids. I’d be worried too.

“Um…like if someone has an open wound.”

“Or if you get really mad,” Maddi added.

Holy crap! Phoebe and Sonny flashed through my mind. I was furious when Sonny just wouldn’t let go of my hair, my most favorite thing about myself. I mean, I am by no means conceited. My petite figure (small boobs and tiny butt) didn’t make me feel like I was as gorgeous as say, Charlie was. But if I knew anything for sure, it was that I had great hair. My loose, long, brown curls gave me confidence about myself. Not to mention, Tristen loved it.

Phoebe had a little cut on her thigh that I pointed out to her just before she went to bed that night. I must have smelled it in my sleep when I was in the next room with Tristen. That must have been the trigger.

“If you are angry and hungry, the Need is crazy strong. Or if you just haven’t eaten in a long time.” Destiny looked at Tristen. “So as long as you make sure you don’t have a cut, you don’t piss her off, and she’s fed, then you’re all good. And you two look pretty happy, so…”

Fluffy.

“But I…ate a cat. And he wasn’t hurt.” I didn’t think I was mad at the little guy either.

“Animals are different. Most are smaller than us, and we are stronger than they are. Our instincts are to use that to our advantage.”

“Makes sense,” Tristen mumbled.

“But they don’t taste as good,” Charlie added, not looking up from playing with Maddi’s hair.

Obviously, she has had human before.

“We eat a lot,” Maddi stated, breaking up the ominous feeling in the air after Charlie’s statement.

Charlie smiled and Destiny laughed. “That’s an understatement.”

“Aren’t there supposed to be more…Zombrids here?” For some reason, I felt like we were the only ones around.

Charlie and Destiny glanced over at each other in silence.

“What?” I asked, suddenly regretting that question.

Chapter 6

The Newborn

“There were probably around thirty of us. But, Dr. Roberson sent them to go live on another part of the island.”

“Hey, Maddi. Wanna go see if we can find some seashells for your collection?” Charlie asked as she stood up from the log.

“Yes. Grace, you wanna come see my seashell collection later?” Maddi asked eagerly.

“Sure,” I answered. I didn’t mean to sound like I wasn’t interested, but I had an uneasy feeling that Charlie was trying to get Maddi away from the conversation that we were getting ready to have.

“Come on, Maddi.”

Destiny watched Charlie and Maddi walk toward the water. Once they were a safe distance away, she began.

“Maddi doesn’t know about East Cocos. We try to keep it from her, so that she doesn’t get scared. She’s too young to know about it.”

“What’s East Cocos?” Tristen asked.

“It’s on the east side of the island. It’s another facility. It’s where all the really sick Zombrids go,” she answered. She didn’t look up at us. She kept her head down when she revealed this, giving me some sort of sadness vibe.

“Really sick? What’s wrong with them?” I asked. How could we be any more sick than we already were?

She inhaled deeply. “I guess you’ve had your testing done, right?”

I nodded.

“Well, we get those tests done at least once every few weeks. It’s so Dr. Roberson can see how our progression is going. Check to make sure our Zombrid brains aren’t getting worse. Anyway, some of the others got really sick all of the sudden. So, Dr. Roberson took them to the East Cocos facility to protect us. You know, in case whatever is wrong with them spreads to us.”

“What do you think is wrong with them?”

“We don’t know. He hasn’t told us much about it.”

“Were you able to see any of them?” Tristen was just as intrigued as I was.

Destiny pulled out another cigarette.

“Should you be smoking that much?” I was getting impatient and irritated with all of the breaks in conversation. I needed to know more.

“I’m half dead! I don’t really care. Besides, Dr. Roberson says I’m good. Anyway, yes I did see someone. My girlfriend. Abby looked…” Destiny stared down at her feet. “She was messed up, man.”

“Hey, who’s ready for some lunch?” Ian leaned his board against the log and unzipped his wet suit. He pulled down the top half, allowing it to dangle from his waist. Beads of water dripped down from his wet hair to his face, down his neck and to his chest.

Okay, I was staring.

I turned away as soon as I realized what I was doing.

Destiny quickly wiped her cheek with her thumb, as if to hide the tear that came rushing down. “Yeah, I’m starved. Let’s go eat.”

“Charlie! Maddi! We are headed to Newport!” Ian yelled out.

Charlie and Maddi began to make their way toward us with hands full of seashells.

As we headed back to the compound, Ian slowed his pace until he was walking beside me. “Destiny took it a little rough when Abby went away,” he whispered. “It’s probably best if we don’t really talk about her.”

“Oh…I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—”

“It’s okay,” he said.

Tristen grabbed my hand and squeezed. I glanced over to him and smiled.

This was a ton of information to digest. Remembering my mother’s philosophy, I mentally took a step back to get a bigger picture.

I was a Zombrid: half human, half zombie. Dr. Roberson tests all of us at least once every few weeks, which wasn’t a bad thing considering that apparently I could get sicker than I already was. I would actually like Dr. Roberson to give me a check up from time to time to see if I was okay.

If I did get sick, then he would send me off to the East Cocos facility. What did they do there? I imagined a big, riveted steel door with the word QUARANTINE engraved into it. What exactly was wrong with them? How was their condition worse than the rest of us? Was their “Need” too much to control?

What about the triggers? I mean, I already knew what I was capable of. Was Tristen really safe around me?

Finding out a little more about everyone else was kind of cool. It actually felt nice having so much in common with these guys, especially when it was dying and having the incredible Need
to eat human flesh.

That thought created a hunger bubble in my belly. I winced.

“You okay?” Tristen asked. I guess he felt me tighten my grip in his hand.

“Yeah. I’m just a little hungry.”

We walked to the courtyard of the compound. Number One was standing alone, as usual. Only this time, he was standing near the Newport entrance. He must know the feeding schedule.

“Mr. Miles, you will have to come with me,” he demanded.

“What? Why can’t he come have lunch with us?”

“Unfortunately, there is nothing in the mess hall for him to eat.”

He was lying.

“Oh, it’s okay. I can just sit with her while she eats,” Tristen responded.

“No, Tristen. I think he’s lying.” I analyzed Number One’s face. “There has to be food for you. Not everyone here is a Zombrid.”

He seemed to have an uncomfortable expression. “I’m sorry, Mr. Miles, but non-subjects are not allowed in the mess hall.”

“Well,
you
came in there with me. And you aren’t a Zombrid, are you? Don’t you eat normal food?” It didn’t make sense to me.

“No. I am not a Zombrid. But it’s the rules, Grace. I’m sorry.”

What the hell?

Tristen turned to me. “Grace, it’s okay. I’ll be waiting for you in your room.”

“But—”

He brushed my cheek with the back of his hand. “Go eat.”

He said it in his soft, sexy voice and gave me a smoldering look. I gave in almost immediately. “Okay.”

He kissed my forehead before we parted ways, and I watched him walk away to the Laguna hut.  As soon as he entered, I turned to Number One and gave him the stink eye.

“What gives?”

“It’s just the rules, Grace.”

“Why? I mean, I’m not going to eat him. Why would I? I’d have food in front of me.”

“Are you sure about that?” he asked.

I stared at him a moment, trying to come up with some answer. But the sad truth was that I didn’t have one. I didn’t know if I would eat Tristen.

Instead, I huffed and stomped my way into the mess hall.

Great. Now I had this to worry about. Not that I didn’t think about it before. Obviously, the possibly of eating Tristen was something I considered before I even moved here.

But I guess I didn’t
really
think it was a risk until Number One just brought it up. He knew more about this whole Zombrid thing than I did.

Whatever. How much could he possibly know? He wasn’t a Zombrid. He wasn’t me. And he didn’t have feelings like I did for Tristen.

I decided to leave the chomping on Tristen thoughts behind me and focus on the food I could eat.

The mess hall wasn’t the quiet, empty place I walked into before. Music was playing on the jukebox in the corner of the large room. The television behind the bar had the news on the screen. Someone was behind it, wiping down the counter. Everyone from the beach, with the addition of Estelle, was already sitting down and eating. Estelle was sitting with Charlie and Maddi. Destiny and Ian were at a table next to their booth.

I walked over to the buffet table and grabbed a plate. A row of platters filled with slabs of meat was placed in the middle. It looked like the same pink and raw meat I had eaten that morning.

I felt a twinge of homesickness when I realized that my mother’s cooking was no longer available to me. I missed the array of colors and flavors that came from the massive feast she served me every day. Not to mention, it was a little more appealing than just sticking a hunk of barely warm carcass in my mouth.

I filled my plate with as much as I could, realizing just then that once I actually saw the food, my hunger spasms increased.

As I walked over to the section where everyone was seated, I noticed that no one was speaking. They were hovered over their plates, shoveling the meat into their mouths in a constant motion. I walked slowly to a chair at the table Ian and Destiny were at and examined them closely. There was only the sound of their chewing, maybe a grunt here and there. Destiny’s hair fell to the sides of her face while she hunched over her plate of food. I couldn’t see her facial expression. Ian sat more upright and his eyes were closed as he chewed frantically on a large piece of meat. Red juice dribbled down the sides of his mouth and dripped onto his plate.

Good Lord! Was that what I looked like when I ate?

I flinched and stopped myself from lunging forward when I felt another hunger pain shoot across my stomach. I sat down and before I knew it, my eyes were closed and I was only thinking about what was going into my mouth.

Although I missed the appearance of my mother’s cooking, the taste of this boar was a million times better.

Once I came to and out of my eating coma, I opened my eyes to no one at the table. I glanced over at the empty booth next to me. I was sitting alone.

I walked outside to find Number One standing near the entrance. “Where’s Tristen?” I asked.

“He’s in the Malibu hut.”

I hadn’t been inside there yet. I walked the few steps it took to the Malibu hut, hearing the faint noise of what sounded like an air hockey table and music. I walked into a large room the same size as the Newport hut.

I glanced around. It had the same Hawaiian décor as Newport too. In one corner, there were two couches surrounding a large television. Maddi and Charlie sat on one, watching what looked like a Disney movie. In the other corner was a little bar and wooden stools. Glass bottles filled with a red liquid were aligned neatly on top. In another corner were two doors with a sign on each: CHICKS and DUDES.

Three arcade-style machines lined up against the wall across from the bathrooms. In the center of the room, there was a pool table and an air hockey table, which was where Tristen was playing with Ian.

He looked up at me. “Hey, you.”

“Hi.”

“Wanna come play? You can have loser, which will be me because I haven’t been able to win one game against this guy.”

“Uh…no, I’ll just watch,” I said, moving over to the wall.

I glanced over at Charlie. She and Maddi were snuggled up on the couch watching…huh, it was the Disney movie Brave. I really liked that movie.

The sound of a door opening prompted me to turn the other direction. Destiny came out of the bathroom, drying her hands with a paper towel as she walked over to me.

“How was your lunch?” she asked.

“It was okay,” I answered. I was embarrassed to express how amazing it was.

“Awe, you know it was great,” she laughed. “You don’t want to admit it yet. It’s all good though. I know when I first came here I was uncomfortable about the food too.”

“Did you come here right after you…died?”

“Yeah, I did. But that’s because I had nowhere else to go. I was pretty much living on the streets. Dr. Roberson kind of saved me, in more ways than one,” she said, sentiment in her tone.

We turned to watch the game. Tristen was concentrating hard on preventing the little plastic puck from entering his goal, which seemed to be going at an unusually rapid speed when hit by Ian. I watched Ian for a moment, who was now wearing a tank top and shorts. He seemed to be barely moving his arm when he hit the puck, but it was sliding across the table at a high speed. I felt sorry for Tristen when I realized there was no chance in hell he was going to beat him.

“How long have you been here?” I asked.

“Um…I’d say about four years.” Her eyes moved over to Maddi and Charlie. “Maddi has been here about a year. Charlie has been here three years. And Ian, well I’m not too sure about him. He was here before I got here.”

“What about Estelle?”

“Do you know how old she is?” she asked, pie-eyed.

“Yeah. She’s one hundred and fourteen.”

“I know! Isn’t that crazy? God, it’s so cool knowing that we will never die.”

A chill ran down my back. “You’re okay with that?”

“Of course I am! Who doesn’t want to be immortal? Anyway, Dr. Roberson started Everlasting Paradise around 2002, when she was injected. She says she was like me and came right after, so I’d say she has been here about—”

“Ten years,” I whispered. Although it was simple math, it felt good to use one of my most skilled abilities: numbers.

Destiny smiled at me. “You love math, don’t you?”

“Um, yeah. Why?”

She put a hand on my shoulder. “We all do,” she stated. She reached inside her pocket and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. “It’s part of our Zombrid brains. For some reason, the serum makes us smarter. Anyway, I’m going to have a smoke. I’ll be back.”

I nodded and turned toward the game, pretending to watch it. In the meantime, my head was swirling with questions.