Bad Blood (Battle of the Undead Book 1) (12 page)

I narrowed my eyes then punched him in the face. He reeled more from surprise than the force of the blow. I leapt up and over Philippe and used the momentum to bowl into the horde of waiting zombies behind him. My scythes worked quickly, and before he had turned around, I’d decapitated every single one of them.

Aggression rolled off him like cartoon stink lines.

“King of a pile of headless corpses,” I said
, then bowed. “My liege.”

He screamed and ran at me. This time, I was ready for him, so I jumped up onto a nearby car out of his reach.

“You’ll regret this,” he said, staring up at me.

“I’ll add it to the list.”

“I’ll be seeing you,” he said, then shot me an evil look and disappeared into the decaying rubble of London.

I stayed perched on the car a minute longer to make sure he wasn’t hiding in the shadows waiting to pounce. I heard the rollers clink together, and suddenly
, Nicholas was atop the car with me.

Josh and Green had their guns up and were flanking the people as they formed a crocodile line and began loading supplies onto the
Double-Decker.

Henri was helping Danny, and Tracy was herding the children.

Nicholas was oddly quiet. I was expecting a sarcastic quip or an off-handed insult, but neither came. Instead, he just stared off into the distance, watching to see if Philippe was coming back.

Once everyone and all the dwindling supplies we had were packed away, Josh started up the bus. Nicholas and I jumped onto the roof, and together we pulled off onto the road. He couldn’t get a great deal of speed up as the roads were covered in debris. When something was too big to push past, one of us would leap off and clear the path for them.

As we were heading out of London, I saw a young man in my peripheral vision. He was down an alley and surrounded by a small pack of zombies. I leapt off the traveling bus and sprinted toward him. Once I reached the man, I pulled him away from the grasp of the undead and roundhouse-kicked the zombies. They fell in a huddle, limbs entwined like reluctant lovers. I turned to the open-mouthed man and patted him down. No bites.

“Hi,” I said.

I pulled him over my shoulder into a fireman’s lift. I ran back to the road and jumped up the now speeding bus. I maneuvered the man through an open window into the waiting arms of Henri and Paul.

Nicholas was crouched on top of the bus with me, his shoulder-length hair escaping from his usually tidy ponytail. He looked at me, smiled, and laughed. He then jumped off and within moments
, had returned with an older woman in his arms. He did the same as I had and threaded her through the window to safety.

I scanned the buildings as we moved through the streets. Middle floor flat
—a female teenager holding a toddler was barricading a door against a lonely yet determined zombie. I swung into action, the force of my jump from the roof of the bus propelling me through the window of the flat. The teenager dropped the toddler in shock and I caught it. With an armful of squirming infant, I kicked the door open and crushed the zombie behind. I threw the teenager over my shoulder and jumped back out into the street. I sprinted to the back end of the bus and threw the teenager into Nicholas’ waiting arms. I followed with the toddler, who had vomited on my Stones T-shirt. No good deed, eh?

The bus had managed to really pick up speed now, and Nicholas and I were almost flat to the roof to avoid being blown off by the G-force.

“Still playing?” Nicholas laughed, and he vaulted off. I looked back and saw him take out a horde of zombies attacking a book shop. He was a blur as he moved inside. Within moments, he was running behind the bus with three more people. Josh must have seen them, as the bus lurched to a halt so they could catch up. They boarded, and off we went again.

Nicholas pulled himself up beside me again.
“I do believe three is the winner,” he said through a grin.

“The bus had to stop for you
. It doesn’t count.”

“That’s not the rules.”

“When did we set the rules for bus-surfing survivor saving?”

“There are always rules
, Britannia.”

“Whatever.” I raised an eyebrow and caught a glimpse of my winning hand.

I threw myself onto a nearby lamppost then swung down in a move that would have made Tarzan jealous. Defending a fast food place was a gang of six youths. They all had blood-stained hoodies and weapons. I made short work of the thirty or so zombies lined up trying to order the gang-topped pizza. When I was done, I looked over my shoulder to see that Josh was about to stop the bus. I waved him to keep going.

“Let’s go!” I yelled at the little gang.

They looked at one another. I stepped back and tore the driver door off the nearest delivery van. I hot-wired it, just like I’d seen Josh do. Unfortunately, the roar of the engine was like a dinner call, and about a hundred zombies seemed to appear from every direction.

“Get in!”
I yelled.

The gang flooded into the back. When I heard the doors shut, I floored it and headed after the bus. I caught up and flashed my lights at it. Josh flashed back, and I saw Tracy with the kids in the back window. They waved at me like we were a
convoy going on holiday.

Nicholas crawled to the back of the roof so he could face me.

“Six!” I yelled out at him.

“They’re not in the bus,” he said, then shrugged.

I was just about to remind him of the “rules” when the Double-Decker’s brake lights flashed on hard. I hit my brakes and squealed to a stop behind the now stationary bus. Nicholas stood up and beckoned me. I got out and pulled the back doors open.

“Hey,” I said.

Five sets of eyes swung to me. One set was closed. There were three guys in their late teens or early twenties. There were two girls in the same age range and one other twenty-something girl covered in blood. Her arm was ripped up, and the kids were holding any spare clothing they had against it. She had three shades of gang-colored scarves wrapped around her wounds.

“Get on the bus. Now!
” I pointed to the now open bus door.

“What about Roberta?” asked one of the girls.

“You need to leave her.”

I saw a sudden flash of anger followed by sadness in her face.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “But you need to listen to me. Please. We can help you.”

All of them left the back of the van and ran over to the bus. Roberta opened her eyes, and I saw she was gone and a zombie was in her place. I lurched forward, twisted her neck
, and watched as she went limp.

I jumped up to join Nicholas on the roof.

“Why’d you stop?” I asked him.

“Look,” he replied, pointing at the start of the motorway.

I followed the line of his finger to a dark, rippling mass on the road. There were hundreds of zombies and randomly parked cars, and that was just as far as the vampire eye could see. The bus wasn’t getting through, and there was no way we could clear the horde by hand.

“We must find another road. We cannot get a vehicle this size through that mess.” Nicholas took a breath. He was worried.

I grinned. I leaned over the side of the bus and tapped on the window. Paul came over.

“Paul, be a dear and fetch me my bag,” I asked.

He turned, was gone a moment, then was back with my bag. He pushed it out of the window, and I took it.

“Thank you,” I said with a smile.

He nodded.

“Well
, that baby sick is giving you an unusual aroma, but are you really doing a wardrobe change now?”

“I’m not changing shirts.”

“Then what are you doing?”

I ferreted around in my bag and brought out one of my grenades.

“Where did you get that?”

“World War Two.”

“Only the one?”

“No, I’ve got two.” I pulled them out, one in each hand
, and held them to my chest.

“My, what a lovely pair,” Nicholas said
, and winked.

I groaned with disgust.

“May I have one?” Nicholas asked.

Hope really does spring eternal.

I shook my head and jumped off the bus. I sauntered toward the zombie mass then climbed on top of the nearest car. I pulled out one grenade ring with my right incisor and lobbed it into the mass of dead flesh. I then jumped off the car and curled up behind it. There was a massive flash of light and the sound of bone being torn from sinew. The petrol left in the cars then took on the blast, and there was an echo effect as each petrol tank caught light and exploded—it was like a fireworks display. I saw it all in the car’s side mirrors and heard everyone’s “oh” and “ah” from the bus.

After the fire had died to embers, we drove over the
smoldering remains. It was bumpy, but do-able. We got onto the motorway and began to make up some time.

As Josh concentrated on the road ahead, I stole a moment to really look at him. Langdon had been daily in my thoughts
. He’d even had guest appearances in my random dreams. Josh looked so much like him, even down to the smattering of dark golden stubble over his chin and top lip. His bottom lip looked succulent, and his hands were, although dirty, dripping with possibilities…

“Are we here again then?” Nicholas’ random question interrupted my daydream.

“What?”

“You and the solider. Who, like the other, is beneath you.”

“I think we’re kind of past the whole class barrier thing now, Nicholas. It was overcome by a couple of hundred years and, oh yeah, a couple of million zombies.” I raked a hand through my hair, pulling it from my face.

“I wasn’t referring to his class status, Brianna.”

He moved away from me and sat with Green. Great. What a team they’d make if they became BFFs.

I scanned the faces of our wards. Some I knew
, some I’d briefly met while slinging them over my shoulder. I heard them make their introductions. I nodded to appear as though I was taking it all in, or at least listening. In reality, I was back to my parallel existence. I was on a bus smiling and kissing my husband ….we were going on holiday, somewhere without zombies. Me and Josh.

“Britannia,” Tracy said as she slid into the seat next to me.

I left my happy thought and returned to smelly, undead-ridden reality. “Tracy.”

“We need more food and other things. Picking up those extras, and I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have, but they’re going to strain our resources. We need to stock up if we’re to make it all the way to Argyle.”

I realized as I looked at her that Tracy was younger than I’d first thought. I guess facing horrors that belong bound in a Penny Dreadful had aged her. I now estimated that she was no more than late twenties.

“Are you listening to me?” Tracy raised an angry eyebrow.

“Yes. Need supplies and stuff,” I replied.

“Then you’ll come up with a plan with Nicholas?”

“I don’t need to run my every move past him.”

“He’s not as bad as you think. He’s been
…kind.”

“He’s doing what he’s been told, Tracy. We were told to find survivors and bring them safely to the haven in Scotland. Nicholas is just a kiss-ass.”

“Still. He likes you. I see it when he looks at you.”

“Nicholas is all about the competition, the chase. He looks at me as if I were prize
d white stag that forever dances from his aim.”

“If you say so.”
She smiled and patted my arm.

I scowled at her and moved my arm away.

“There’s a turn off. We’re gonna need gas soon,” Josh shouted back to us.

“Okay, let’s turn off,” I replied.

“We should keep—” Nicholas stopped when he saw the look in my eyes.

The road off the motorway was quiet and free of shuffling undead. There, of course, was a reason for that
…

We stopped just outside a retail park. Lying before us was a massive sprawling discount shopping cent
er that was lousy with zombies. Nicholas and I climbed to the roof again. We could see further, although in truth, all we saw were just more zombies.

We looked at one another and shook our heads. We’d both seen the George A
. Romero movie.

“We can’t take them in there, but we can get supplies. They must have a food court of some description,” said Nicholas—like he was some shopping expert.

Suddenly, the image of Nicholas on an epic shopping day, sitting in a plastic molded chair and eating a floppy hamburger, made me smirk.

“Bad idea?” he asked.

“No, let’s go with the stow and scrounge plan. We can park the bus somewhere out of the way or find an industrial unit.”

“Conceding my point?”

“Don’t push me.”

“I would never dream of it. I know you push back.”
Nicholas waggled his eyebrows.