Journal of the Undead (Book 1): Littleville Uprising (22 page)

“I’m not giving you a gun. Now get in here! You’re acting like a child. Quit shaking your head no. I’m not kidding;
get in here
.”

“Fine then, keep your stuff. Give me my dad’s gun!” she insisted.

“Emma, I’m not going to tell you again! Get your ass in here now!” Evan growled.

“No. I can’t,” Emma whispered, avoiding eye contact. “I’ve been bitten.”

“NO!” With one fluid movement he grabbed Emma, pulled her through the window, and sat her on the bed. “Where? Show me!”

“My leg,” Emma croaked, looking down at the wounded area.

As Evan dropped to his knees to examine the bite, his heart lodged in his throat. A stream of blood was seeping through her jeans and running down her leg. Evan slipped off her shoe and tried to pull the leg of her jeans up to the wound, but it was no use. The bite was too far up on her leg and her skinny jeans were too tightly tapered. He couldn’t get them any higher than her ankle. Frantically, Evan jerked Emma to her feet and in an instant he had unbuttoned her jeans and tugged them down to her ankles. Emma sat on the edge of the bed attempting to cover her lower half with her shirt as Evan slid her injured leg out of the pants. He grabbed a bottle of water from his nightstand and poured it over the wound. Emma was baffled when she heard him whisper, “Oh, thank God.”

“Emma, did you go past the Kendrick’s place on your way back?”

“Yeah, why?”

“It looks like Lecter bit you, not a zombie. Although I’m sure it felt like one of those walking corpses. Miserable animal.”

“Lecter?”

“Yeah, the Kendrick’s Rottweiler. I’m not sure what its real name is but I call him Lecter—as in
Hannibal
Lecter—because he likes to eat people. Since I moved here that crazy dog has bit at least four kids; maybe more.”

Emma let the news sink in for a minute.

“So I’m not … I mean, I won’t, you know, become one of them?

“No,” Evan assured her. Smiling broadly, he added, “No, you won’t.”

“Thank you for being so concerned even though I know you despise me. I really do appreciate it.”

“You don’t
know
anything,” Evan muttered, his smoldering eyes burning into hers. Then, cupping Emma’s face in his hands, his lips crushed down onto hers. Evan’s relief that Emma was safe, coupled with his desire, had taken over as he gently lowered her back onto the bed. His kisses became more demanding while his fingers worked feverishly on the buttons of her shirt.

Convinced she must be dreaming, Emma did not object. She knew that when she woke up the following day that seeing Evan would be even more painful, but she had missed his kisses. Emma sighed as her head swirled at a dizzying pace. She marveled at the realism of her dream; his kisses were just like she had remembered.

Evan tried to shut out the nagging voice in his mind that insisted he had crossed the line. His mom and her brother were just down the hall, but he’d longed to hold her for so long. Emma’s skin, still chilled from the cool autumn air, flushed as Evan’s fingertips traced the contour of her neck down to the slope of her breast. Evan paused and waited for a hint of resistance. When he received none, he threw caution to the wind and carefully raised Emma’s injured leg to hitch it up over his hips. A soft sigh escaped her lips as Evan’s hand slipped under the lacy fabric of her bra. Emma returned his kisses with unbridled urgency.

“Hey, Evan! Have you seen Em-ma?” Matt called, as he popped his head through the door. Gawking at the two of them, Matt scoffed, “Apparently you have … pretty much
all
of her.”

Leaping from the bed, Evan stammered, “Matt, it’s not what it looks like.”

“That’s good, ‘cause it looks like you were about to screw my sister,” he shot back harshly. Then, poking his head into the hall, he announced, “I found her.”

Whipping back around, Matt pointed at his sister and growled, “Get dressed!”

Emma pulled her jeans back on as quickly as possible. Her hands trembled as she attempted to button her shirt and ended up with some of the buttons mismatched. Evan picked up the t-shirt that he had haphazardly tossed on his floor and pulled it over his head. Kate breezed into the room while Emma was still adjusting her buttons.

“What’s going on in here?”

Emma’s guilty expression combined with the jumbled buttons answered her question.

“Nothing,” Evan replied. “Emma thought she had been bitten so I checked, but she’s fine. No worries.”

“Well, that makes perfect sense since there’s loads of zombies roaming through the house. Aren’t there, Emma?” Matt’s sarcasm was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

In the same relaxed tone, Evan replied, “Emma went out this morning.”

“YOU WHAT?” Matt shouted.

Kate’s face paled but she tried to remain calm. She placed a gentle yet restraining hand on Matt’s shoulder, hoping he would keep cool.

“Emma, what were you thinking? Why would you take such a risk?” Kate asked.

All eyes were on Emma as they waited for her reply.

“I had to go to my house. I went to get … I mean, there was something there I needed,” Emma replied hastily, hoping her answer would suffice. With no time to look through the stack of papers, she wasn’t sure if she’d found anything that would help them.

“What could you have possibly needed that we didn’t have here?” Kate asked.

Emma paused for a moment. Finding the right words would be crucial. She didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.

“I went to get my dad’s research. They had to have known this was coming. I thought, maybe, he had found a way to ….” Emma’s voice trailed off when she noticed the disapproving frowns.

“Oh, Emma,” Kate sighed. “I wish you had talked to me first. I could have saved you the trip. Honey, they weren’t working on anything related to this situation. I’m sorry.”

“But I know he did. He told me,” Emma protested. “I had a dream.”

“Geez, Emma. Have you gone off the deep end, or what?” Matt shook his head. “You can’t seriously believe that. He’s gone, Em. He can’t help us.”

“Matthew, you’re not helping,” Kate chastised.

“It doesn’t matter. I just, I thought that if I had found a way to save us, then
maybe
you wouldn’t want to kick me out.”

“Evan! I thought you handled this!” Kate snapped.

“No one needs to handle ‘
this’
because it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m not going to stay somewhere when I know I could be chucked out the door any second. I’m sick of being surrounded by people who hate me. Screw it, I’m outta here.”

Emma lunged for the open window but Evan grabbed her and held her back. Emma struggled to break free but Evan was too strong for her. Though frustrated and humiliated, Emma refused to allow herself to cry. No, she would not give him the satisfaction.

“Emma Wexley! You plant your butt in that chair and don’t you dare move an inch!” Kate ordered.

Unaccustomed to having Kate speak to her in that fashion, Emma slumped down into the chair by Evan’s desk and stared miserably at the floor.

“Now where exactly were you planning to go, young lady?”

Emma paused. She hadn’t planned anything. If she had made it out the window, she had no idea where she would have gone. In desperation, Emma mumbled that she wanted to go find her Aunt Jenny. Evan immediately rattled off a list of reasons why Emma should stay put while Kate was also trying to persuade Emma to stay.

Ignoring Evan’s protests and Kate’s pleas, Emma watched the blood from her leg pool onto her sneakers and stain the once-white laces. With her head down, Emma never noticed her brother had slipped out of the room.

When he returned, Matt was carrying his backpack and zipping up his jacket.

“If we’re going, I guess we’d better get started. We need to make the most of the daylight. ”

“
We
aren’t going anywhere, Matt,” Emma spat. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re staying here.”

“You’re the one being ridiculous!” Matt shot back. “What makes you think I’d let you leave by yourself? Didn’t you read the book? You’d never make it on your own. Besides, you don’t even know if Aunt Jenny is home or even still alive.” Matt was gaping at her in utter disbelief. “You’ll die on your own. Or worse.” His voice was thick with emotion. The thought of losing his sister was more than he could bear.

Not like anyone would care
, Emma thought to herself.

Evan dropped to his knees in front of Emma and looked up at her in bewilderment.

“Emma, I don’t understand. You read my journal. You know how I feel about you.”

“Oh my God, Emma! Hello, personal boundaries.”

“Shut up, Matt. This is between me and Emma,” Evan said over his shoulder.

“Yes Evan, I know
exactly
how you feel about me,” Emma seethed. “
Useless bitch
,
heartless whore
, and my personal favorite,
soulless
…”

Evan’s hand clamped tightly over her mouth before she could finish. He couldn’t bear to hear such an ugly word come out of Emma’s beautiful mouth and definitely not in front of his mother.

“Don’t …” Evan whispered. It was then that he realized Emma had read the wrong entries.

“Where did you stop reading?”

“The night before Lucy’s birthday party,” Emma answered. Her voice wavered. It was pure agony to think about what Evan had written, let alone say it out loud.

“No, Emma,” Evan sighed. “You were supposed to read the recent entries, not that old stuff.”

“I didn’t know I was ‘supposed’ to read anything.”

Evan grabbed his journal and placed it in Emma’s hands. He turned to the day of the uprising and asked her to start reading. Convinced that she had already read more than enough, Emma pretended to scan the pages.

“Out loud, please.”

“
October 23
rd

The waiting is over and the zombie apocalypse has begun. In spite of all my reading and training, I was completely unprepared for the carnage. My heart almost stopped when Mr. Raybach stumbled out of that little storage room! As he shuffled toward Emma, all I could think was please God, not her. Right then I swore I’d do anything, just as long as Emma was safe. We may have made it here in one piece but I didn’t do such a great job keeping her safe. It was bad enough that she saw half of our class (not to mention Jake and Tyler) being ripped to shreds and Mr. Wexley’s death was even worse but I messed it up more. It was my stupid idea to send Matt off through the field first, just so I could walk with her alone. That’s what sent her over the edge. My first mission was definitely a failure. Dad would be very disappointed! Maybe Tyler was right. I’m not good enough for her and I certainly don’t deserve her. After all, I’m the idiot that told her she wasn’t welcome here. When Mom said Emma was begging not to be tossed into the street with those monsters, it was like a knife to the heart. Honestly, I was so pissed off that day, I barely even remember saying it to her. How could she believe something so ridiculous, anyway? I must have told Emma that I love her a million times. Instead, she believed that stupid lie. Mom adores her and, right now, she’d be more likely to kick me out—not Emma. She’s really mad at me right now!! I have to fix this first thing tomorrow.

October 24
th

So far, we haven’t seen any zombies roaming down our street. I wish I knew what was happening in town. Doc always said the media would cover it all up, but I hoped that one of the local TV or radio stations would tell us something useful. Matt and I stayed up all night just to keep watch. So far, there’s nothing to report. I’m really worried about Emma. She threw up and she hardly sleeps between the nightmares. She’s been avoiding me but I guess that’s because she read my journal. On the plus side, she knows Mom never said she wasn’t welcome or to stay away from Lucy. But she also knows I lied just to hurt her. Maybe she’s uncomfortable since she knows I still love her but she’s clearly over me. At least she’s here and she’ll be well protected. I swore I wouldn’t let anything happen to her and I meant it!

Emma stopped reading and stared at the page. She was dumbfounded, but when her eyes met Evan’s she saw his true feelings. He pulled her into a gentle embrace and lightly brushed a kiss across her forehead.

“Silly girl,” Evan laughed.

“Well, now that that’s settled,” Kate interjected, “Emma, we would all be very pleased if you would agree to stay but I do have one request.
Please
stop trying to avoid Lucy. She’s heartbroken. She can’t understand why you don’t want to be her friend anymore.”

“I’m so sorry. I’ll make it up to her and to all of you, I promise,” Emma replied vehemently.

She was shocked that Evan had forgiven her but it gave her hope. After everything that had happened, if Evan could forgive her, maybe Matt could too. She desperately missed her twin.

Evan’s brow furrowed, the way it always did when he was deep in thought.