Cry Zombie Cry (I Zombie Book 5) Read Free Page B

now?” Echo’s voice was barely audible over the angry sounds of the Obliterator.
    “ We wait,” was my simple reply.
    Joshua released a heavy sigh. “It’s going to be a long-ass wait if we have to listen to this same song on repeat. Don’t you have any Avenged Sevenfold? Makes me bash my head every time.” Josh braved a smile and a wink.
    The passenger door opened and Morgan lowered herself to the seat.
    “ Wow. That was crazy.” She smiled at Josh. “How long before the crew arrives with gas?”
    “ Shouldn’t be long now. Just sit back and enjoy the show.”
    An odd quiet befell the inside of the Hummer as we watched the theatre of the macabre play out on the streets with no names. We were lost in so many ways.
     

chapter 2 | a dark and twisted plan
     
    The radio crackled to life, breaking a too-long silence. The commander stood from behind his desk and glided to the communications station to grab the handset.
    “ This is Faddig.”
    “ Sir.” The voice belonged to Thomas Webber, lead biologist for the Zero Day Collective. “I have something you’ll want to see. Yes, you will definitely want to see this. Yes.”
    Faddig rolled his eyes. It seemed every time the biologists or chemists rearranged a few molecules they felt it necessary for their commander to come to them immediately.
    “ I don’t really—”
    “ Sir, please pardon this insubordination, but get down here now. Without a doubt, you need to be in this location at this precious moment. Now.”
    With that, the radio went silent.
    Faddig huffed, straightened his tie, and opened the door to his office. The cooler air danced across his caramel skin like a familiar lover. He welcomed it. The stifling heat of his office never failed to lull him into a false sense of comfort he once felt in his homeland.
    “ They have such horrible timing,” Faddig sighed.
    Since the Zero Day Collective had managed to get their hands on baby Jacob, it was a twenty-four seven circus of experiments, meetings, security threats, and monstrous evolutionary changes for the undead.
    They had the cure in their hands. The only way they could ensure the Great Cleansing succeeded was to make sure the Mengele Virus evolved in such a way that any attempt at a cure would never succeed. It was all such dark, necessary work—work that had become the single greatest challenge the ZDC had ever faced. Somehow, the blood flowing through the child was able to predictively evolve as if it knew exactly what the Zero Day biologists would do to alter the virus, as if the very chemistry within Jacob had a sentience of its own. But how? That was the sixty-four million dollar question that would, inevitably, have no worth should the Great Cleansing fail.
    As Faddig marched through the halls of the mobile headquarters, soldiers turned and snapped to attention. The commander made no effort to acknowledge the existence of anyone around him; he simply marched forward with a singular anxious purpose. The fear his authority and power instilled drove him onward, into the belly of the beast. The deeper he went into the heart of the biological car, the more frightening the reality became. Inhuman screams tore from the throats of creatures within the surrounding rooms. Should any one of the monsters escape, no one in the headquarters would survive.
    Monsters.
    A shudder chased its way around Faddig’s back. He stopped at one of the isolation chambers and turned to glance through the three-inch Plexiglas portal. Standing in the center of the room was what looked at first blush like a tall, gaunt male. The figure stood in absolute stillness. No breath entered its useless lungs, no heart beat within its rotting torso. The meat covering its skeleton did everything it could to fend off decomposition. The thing appeared harmless.
    Until your scent danced over its tongue.
    The beast’s hands were large and strong enough to palm and crush a human skull. With an overlong proboscis for a tongue, the