CHAPTER 6: Zombie

JAMES' POV,

The roads should have been empty at that hour of the day. Instead, the road was packed with cars heading to the city. Every single one, while I drove against them with nothing but empty asphalt in front of me. I was thankful for that. Two fighter jets cut overhead, low enough that the sound hit my chest, and behind them three helicopters banked hard toward the hills north of our small town.

“James, what is happening? The army jets and helicopters?” Selena braced a hand against the dashboard, knuckles white. “Why are people driving the other way? What is out there?”

“They are driving to their deaths. They are stupid to think they can outrun an apocalypse.”

“What?” She twisted to look behind us, at the river of cars speeding in the opposite direction, away from where we were going. “James, please turn around. Everyone is going the other way, and all of them couldn't be wrong. We need to go that way too—”

“If we go that way, we will die.” I didn't look at her. I couldn't afford to, because I was worried about Freya. She was the one who built the shelter to protect others. She deserved to survive the apocalypse more than anyone else. “Trust me. I am not going to let anything bad happen to you. I already have a good plan.”

“Trust you?” she asked, trying to call someone again and again, but the other person was not picking up her calls. “If you want me to trust you, tell me where we are going? Why are we driving in the opposite direction?”

“We are going to the old factory. We will be safe there.”

She stared at me like I had lost my head. “The old factory? James, that place is falling apart. What are you talking about—”

“It's not falling apart anymore,” I answered before she could complete her sentence. “I have been working on it for weeks to make it livable. That place is going to be our shelter from what's going to happen next.”

She threw her phone in frustration, and her hand shot toward the steering wheel. She tried turning the car around, catching me by surprise. I felt the car jerk when she tried to make a U-turn, and in panic I shoved her back on the seat aggressively. Her head hit the window hard enough that she winced in pain. I groaned when tears filled her eyes.

“Don't,” I warned her despite the tears. “Don't you ever do that again while I'm driving. You could have gotten us both killed with your reckless action.”

“You've completely lost your mind!” She was crying now. I could see she was terrified and felt helpless. “You can't just decide where we're going on your own. We have a daughter, James, and we need to go back to her no matter what happens—”

“Alice is with Griffin's mother at his house. There is nothing else we can do, and you know that.” I tried keeping my hands steady on the wheel, even though nothing inside me felt steady. “I talked with Griffin before we left. He knows where we are going and promised to bring her back.”

“I want my baby to be safe,” she said, wiping her tears. “And for that I have to take her away from this town.”

“No place is safe out there,” I said, speeding up when I heard blasts from the hills. Selena turned, and her eyes widened when she saw the smoke coming from there. “I told you that I've been building a shelter, but you laughed at me back then. But the shelter has clean water, a lot of food, and a wall that'll protect us from those mindless monsters.”

“I laughed because it sounded insane! How can you trust me to believe zombies are real?”

“It's not insane now, is it?” She didn't answer that, and I kept driving. We were out of the town, five minutes away from the old factory. I could already see it in the distance.

“Who helped you build it? Or did you work alone?” she asked, quieter now, like she knew she wasn't going to like the answer.

“Freya.”

“Freya Hale?!” Selena's voice rose in anger. “Why would she—”

Something hit the car just then.

It came out of nowhere and launched itself into the passenger side. Selena screamed, pulling her legs up in fear. I swerved instinctively, taking control of the car and pulled the emergency brakes. My heart was hammering against my ribs. I took a deep breath and tried pulling back when I saw her face. Her jaw unhinged unnaturally, skin grey and yellow, and her eyes were fixed on the car.

I didn't think twice. I started the car and turned straight into her. The impact sent her flying up into the sky, and she fell behind us.

“Oh, my God.” Selena pressed both her hands over her mouth. “Oh my God, you hit her, James. You hit a person. We have to go back—”

“She is already dead.”

“You don't know that!” She was twisting around in her seat, craning to see through the back windshield. “We have to check. We can't just leave someone on the road like—”

She stopped.

I watched it happen in the rearview mirror. The girl I had hit with my car just now pushed herself back up onto her hands. Then, slowly, she was on her knees. Then on her feet. Her head hung at an angle no living being could copy, and she turned to follow the sound of the car engine, but it was already too late. I increased the speed, and this time Selena didn't complain.

“James.” Her voice had gone very small. “What is that? What is she?”

I kept my eyes on the road and my foot steady on the gas because if I looked at her face, I knew I wouldn't have been able to keep driving.

“Zombie.”