Falling Apart (Barely Alive #2) (7 page)

“Get out. Now.” I gripped the phone, the plastic piece creaking under the strain.

She whispered, “I can’t. He handcuffed me to the console. I’m stuck in here. Please help me. Please.”

I faced the wall and pressed my fingers onto the smooth wallpaper. I closed my eyes. “I’m coming, Heather. Hang in there. I’m coming.”

She hung up.

I pulled the phone from my ear and stared at it, unable to digest the situation. I’d only thought he would take her because it hadn’t seemed like a real possibility. He’s human. He can’t do anything with her. She’s nothing to him. Dominic doesn’t have control over humans.

Unless…
oh, boy.
“Guys, we have a problem.” I turned to the group, my hand lingering over the replaced phone piece, like it tied me to her, even though the call had been disconnected. “Brian took Heather and she’s handcuffed to the car.” I nodded to James. “Like we thought. Dominic might be leading this. You said Brian’s mom is away right now? Are we certain he doesn’t have her?” I squared my shoulders. “We’ll figure this out when we get there. We need to catch up to Brian. At this point, he’s not aware that we know. James, have you had enough to eat for a while?”

He nodded. “You bet. Let’s go. Are we leaving Travis and Connie here? If so, you guys might want to get started preparing the ditches and lining them with wood and gas or oil. The best defense is no holes.”

Travis pushed himself to a standing position from the stool. “I can watch everyone for you. We need to finish up the vaccine anyway. If we secure the reproduction of the virus, it might be good to start injecting people up here. We won’t let anything happen to your mom and Grandma Jean.”

Little relief when he was so newly infected and all he could think about was eating and sex.

“No,” He shook his head. “It’s not me, it’s Connie. She just wants to do that all the time. I want to fix this. I want my life back.”
Odd, he could hear what I was thinking. I’d have to watch my thoughts around him with more care.
Travis sighed. “Please. That would help me a lot.”

Mom’s gaze darted between me and the good doctor. “What is happening between you two?”

“It’s nothing, Mom. He can hear my thoughts because of the transfer of direct fluids. Seriously, it’s nothing.” I waved off the import of the ability. I ignored the urge to disclose the connection between James and Dominic.
Why worry the woman, right?

Travis nodded, muttering as he passed me. “Good call.”

Okay, this was going to get old. Fast.

The drive had a multi-faceted reality to it. On one hand, I was bored. Bored beyond belief. I’d already driven the route up and quite frankly didn’t find it as stimulating as Heather had described.

On the other hand, I couldn’t quit moving my fingers in a tapping, swirling pattern on my knee. Nerves claimed my sanity – not to mention James’s inane chatter about absolutely nothing pertinent to life in any aspect. Seriously, who gives a damn about the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders? Hot? Yes. Alive still? Most likely not, especially if Dominic was still gifting the guys with girls.

And the last hand? Not that I had three hands, but on the last hand, I was starving. I had to eat soon. Getting used to regular bouts of food might have been detrimental to my survival. I couldn’t focus on much.

Maybe we’d catch up to Brian and Heather and I’d have a chance to let go. Human sounded so appealing. Hell, feline was growing on me.

We’d brought the cell with us. The last number Dominic had called from might still work. And the more I stared at the small piece, the more I wanted to call and demand some answers. But we couldn’t tip our hand. Calling the bastard would suggest something had happened.

According to Mom, the only benefits we wanted him to have had to be planted purposely and only if we stood to benefit from his reaction. Hoarding all information and our own reactions created a power shift he wouldn’t realize had happened.

I liked my mom’s job. She kicked ass at telling us how to figure out the enemy.

No way, had she planned on having pawns for sons.

“Do you think you can stop talking, James? I need to think about what to do and how far to go.” I tried softening the demand, but hell, inane… inane. Ugh.

“Sure. Can I ask a quick question?” He continued at my nod. “Would it bother you, if I turned on the news? Las Vegas can’t be the only city still affected.”

The idea had merit. I pushed the radio button and spun it until the search function found the next AM radio station. The newswoman’s voice lacked the emotional attachment of the one in Vegas, but this one most likely wasn’t worried about a zombie breaking into her booth and eating chunks of her flesh. “…Spokane and surrounding areas are coming under attack. The local authorities are verifying quarantine plausibility before placing one on the area. If you have somewhere you need to be, I would get there now. Once the sun sets tonight, martial law will spread across the state of Nevada and into southern California. Salt Lake City is considering the addition of the National Guard, but unfortunately no one knows the exact way to stop the attackers.”

Damn, I had told them.
I’d given them the exact way to destroy us. Stupid humans couldn’t pull their heads out of their asses long enough to figure out how to save their species.

She continued, irritating me further. “The President of the United States has declared this a state of emergency. He is considering the command to detonate a nuclear warhead over the Las Vegas area as well as any other major metropolis area affected by the attacks.” Nuke? Wow. Pretty serious step. It’d take care of the problem in those immediate areas but not provide much of a resolution. I stored the plan away for a possibility, if Dominic took too much control.

James pointed to the bridge overhead. A group of approximately ten to twenty people held neon colored signs printed with
welcome
and
take me
. I’d heard of these freaks – the kind of people who welcomed an alien invasion. I wasn’t an alien, but I was tempted. I rolled my eyes. If they wanted me to come eat their asses, a bright sign might be the one way to market the muscle.

The radio announcer moved on to the National Center of Disease Control’s protocol for the passing of viruses into the community. Yeah, the Center had a survival plan for a Zombie attack, but we weren’t the Hollywood-brain-eating-moaning-stumbling-around-without-ability-to-think-for-ourselves kind. We had twelve weeks to figure out how to die gracefully or we’d end up stuck in our brains while our bodies deteriorated around us. Who knows how long we could exist that way?

I’d never gotten a straight answer from Dominic.

He might not even know.

“Where do you think they are?” James turned on the headlights. Dusk would fall in minutes and my brother was anal about safety. So annoying.

“I don’t know. It’s been about an hour since her call. They can’t be that far ahead of us. Brian wouldn’t speed because he’d draw more attention to himself than he wants.” Just like us. Oh, wait, we weren’t speeding because my brother, Anus McMasters, couldn’t get his ass to driver faster than one mile over the speed limit. Add another reason to why my sanity continued trying to jump out the window.

James turned the heat up. “I haven’t been this cold since we drove up. If I wasn’t in this car with heat, there is no way I’d come up here. No matter what Dominic pulled with my head.” He held his hand in front of the vent. “Did you see the way Travis just shut down when he’d been in the cold for a few minutes? I couldn’t believe it. But I’ve been there. I understand. I feel like a lizard or a dinosaur.”

“Dinosaurs are extinct, James.”
Note to self, James didn’t know how to shut up. Figure out a way to shut him up without hurting him.

“I know. I’m just saying the whole cold-blooded thing makes sense. Your metabolism skyrockets until you hold completely still and try to make your systems more efficient. When I was shot? It was all I could do not to scream with the biting cold. But I withdrew, didn’t want to move or think. I actually felt like I was freezing.” He passed a pale blue car cautiously.

I would’ve passed the damn thing about twenty miles back.

“You had a fever. Did you really feel like you were freezing?” I’d touched him. His temperature had been extremely high. “We worried you had an infection.”

He laughed, pounding his fist on the center of the steering wheel. “That’s awesome. You know what’s funny? I do have an infection. Same as you.”

It took me a second, but then I got it and once I started laughing, I couldn’t stop. Trapped in the cycle of silly laughter that made you laugh because the other person is laughing and no longer because of the original reason, James and I gasped for air, clutching our sides.

Shadows escaped before our headlights. A Hummer sat on the side of the road, its hood up and a jack under the back wheel. The vehicle was exactly what we were looking for. I pointed at the car and James nodded. Sober slapped us in the face. My guts clenched with trepidation.

According to Heather, Brian was late for something. If that were the case, why was their car on the side of the road? Something had obviously happened. What concerned me was if Heather had survived it.

We pulled up behind the large SUV, our headlights protecting our identities for a little longer. Nothing moved. I climbed out. James didn’t shut off the engine. If we needed to get out of there fast, it made sense to have someone ready to run at the drop of a —

“What the hell is that?” James pointed through the windshield.

I ducked behind the door. Nothing moved. I stared, hard, squinting at the abandoned looking car. “I don’t see anything.” But James didn’t drop his finger. I moved slow, dropping to a crouch and scuttling over the gravelly shoulder to the rear of the Hummer. No sounds.

Where the hell were the owners of the car? Even if it wasn’t Brian and Heather, someone should be there. But nope, nothing moved. No signs of life. I bent over and craned to see under the car. No feet. Anywhere.

But James had seen something. He’d pointed toward the driver’s side. I returned to my crouched position and moved around to the passenger’s door. Peeking up through the glass, I straightened in shock at the sight before me. A huge handful of dark brown curls had been cut off of someone’s head – I couldn’t bring myself to think her name – and wrapped with a bright red ribbon to dangle from the rear-view mirror. Blood spattered the front windshield and dash, but from the driver’s side. A puddle had darkened the seat.

The people had disappeared. There was no other sign of life, besides me and the other passing vehicles. We had to get out of there before more people passed and took note of who had stopped by the big fancy car.

Someone had Heather and I had no idea what kind of car to chase after now.

Time to make that damn phone call to Dickhead. I couldn’t think of anyone else who wanted Heather.

I jogged back to the car and slammed the door behind me. “Go. We need to get out of here.”

James didn’t question me and shifted into drive.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “They weren’t there.”

“I gathered that. What the heck was hanging from the mirror? That looked sick. Please tell me he didn’t scalp her.” James flicked his gaze between me and the road.

Good point. She hadn’t been scalped. “No. They just chopped a bunch of her hair off and tied it to the mirror.” I might have wished before that Brian had gotten hurt, but I’d intended for it to be by my hand and not the way it appeared. “There was blood in the driver’s seat and across the dash. I think Brian is either dead, one of us, or worse.” Not that those options weren’t as bad as it could get.

“What are we going to do?” James slowed, as if to turn around. Hell, I didn’t think he could’ve gone any slower.

I pressed on his leg until the car accelerated. “Keep going. Dominic won’t allow Heather to be hurt. He needs her to get to me.” Why he wanted to even bother with me anymore was an enigma, but his narcissism was enough to entertain a psychology team for years. I reached for the cell. “I’m going to call Dominic and see what the hell he wants now.”

The cell phone’s log was filled with his number. I’d just need to push the green button. Just one push and I’d be connecting. Was it worth it?

I couldn’t ask James. I couldn’t even think about it. I had to just – push. The phone beeped and I pressed the piece to my ear. James jerked his gaze from me to the road and back to me. I wished he’d focus on the road. A little bit of food in my stomach might have helped me sweat.

The phone rang. I bit the inside of my cheek. Ring. Ring. Ring.

Dominic’s voice spilled from the speaker. “Why, hello Paul. How’s it going?”

I cringed. Sickly sweet like orange-marmalade, his voice hadn’t changed with the virus. I swallowed the bile speaking with him pushed into the back of my throat. “Dominic. Things are fine. We should be catching up to Brian any second.” Throw him off, because I had nothing to be cocky about. Nothing.

He chuckled. “No, you’re not. You don’t even know what they’re driving.”

“Don’t I? That’s interesting. I can see the chunk missing from Heather’s hair silhouetted in the windshield now.”
Positive, think positive, Paul.
And like my positive thinking really worked, a sleek black car darted between two rough trucks with beds full of chopped wood. I pointed the move out to James and he nodded. And, holy hell, he stepped on the gas – the needle rising above the speed limit. Could we really be that lucky we’d found them so fast?