Life After The Undead (Book 2): Death to the Undead (41 page)

The
tires
squealed
and
burnt
rubber
tickled
my
nose.
I
was
thrown
back
into my
seat as the
vehicle
came
to a
complete
stop. I
thought
Liet
was
going
to tear the
gear
stick
out of the
side of
the
wheel.
He
turned
in
his
seat,
placed
his
hand
on
my
neck,
and
stuck
his
face
inches
from
mine.
He pushed
my
head into the
headrest.

“It’s
going
to be a
very
long
trip to
Florida.
I
suggest
being
on
your
best
behavior.”

“Or
what?” I
snarled. “There
is nothing
left
you
can
do to hurt
me. You’ve
taken away
everything.”

“Trust
me,
Krista.”
His
voice was
low,
“There
are
worse things
than
death.”

I
scoffed.
“Like
what? Being
a
zombie?
I’m
pretty
sure
wandering
the
earth
with nothing
on
my
mind
but
flesh
would be a
blessing
right
now. The
only
thing
that
would
suck
is
I
wouldn’t
remember
to
come
after
you!”

He
tightened
his
grip
on
my
neck.
The
air barely
made
it into
my
lungs.
My
headache
increased.

Without
saying
a
word, he
released me
and
put the
vehicle
in
drive.
I
had him. I
knew it.
There
was
nothing
he
could
do to me.
The
one
thing
I
wanted
was for him to
kill
me.
It
would
save
a
lot of
heartache. Yeah,
the
people
in
Florida
still
needed
me, but the mission
seemed
hollow
without
Quinn to
help.
Tears
stung
my
eyes,
but
I
refused
to
let
them
fall. I
averted
my
gaze
out the
window.

Liet
found
a
Hummer,
more
than likely
outside
the
Army
cave.
I
attempted
to
look over
the
seat,
see
what
he
packed
in the
back.
From
the
corner
of my
eye,
I
saw
dark
green
duffel
bags
and a
stack
of
guns. Liet
was
smart
enough
to know he’d
need
food
and
water,
but he
also
needed
to take
something
to
appease
The
Families.

No doubt they
were
going
to be
angry
the
workers
took
over
North
Platte. They
were
probably
upset
they
had
to
come
out
and
level
the
whole
place.
They
were going
to
be
furious
to know they
didn’t actually
kill
any
of
the
uprisers
in the
attack. Liet
had a
lot of explaining to do,
but he
could
smooth the way
with a
gift.

Liet.
Even thinking
his name
made
me
nauseous.
Why
had we
shown him
mercy?
Why
didn’t we
string
him up on the
barbed
wire
fence
in
North
Platte and let
the
zombies
take
care
of
him?
We
wanted
to
lead
by
example,
show how
compassionate
we
were.
You know,
the
complete
opposite
of
Liet. But
what
did that
accomplish?
Quinn
got
shot, and
I
was
kidnapped. Plus,
he
knew
where
the
survivors
were.
He
could
send out an
extermination
crew
once
we
got
to
Florida.
I
could only
hope
Pam
and
Tanya
got
back
to camp
and
told them to
move out.

I
clenched
my
jaw. What else
could
possibly
go
wrong?
Lately,
it seemed like
everyone
I
ran
into
wanted
to kill me. My
luck
ran
out.
It
was
the
only
explanation.
It
had to happen sooner or
later,
but
why
couldn’t
it
have
been
after
the
siege
on
Florida? Maybe
during
the
victory
party
I
could
randomly
get
struck
by
lightning.

“Life
doesn’t
work
like
that, Krista.”
I
heard
my
father’s
voice
in
my
head.
“Rome
wasn’t
built in a
day.”

I
punched the
car
door,
frustrated.
There was nothing
I
could
do about
my
situation. I
was
stuck.
Dad would
say,
“There’s
always
a
way.
You
might
not see
it,
but
you’re
never truly
stuck.”
Obviously,
that man had
never
been
handcuffed
inside
a
car
with
a
lunatic.

“You
know,
Krista,” Liet’s
voice
was
soft, kind.

I
focused
my
glare
on him, just to make
sure
it
was
actually
Liet
in the
car.

“It’s
not too
late
to
fix
things
between
us.”

My
jaw
dropped
open.
He
was
joking.
He
had
to
be.

He
glanced
at
me.
“What?”
His
voice had
a
hint of
anger
to it.

“Did
you
do drugs as a child?”

“What?”

“How else
do
you
want
me to
ask
it?
It’s
a
straight
forward
question.”

“Yeah.
Some.”

“That
probably
explains
a
lot.” I
turned
my
attention
back
out the
window.

“Whatever. Either
way,
we’re
still
family.
The
only
we
have
left. With Quinn
gone,
you
have
no one
left. Except
me.”

I
balled
my
hand into a
fist.
Did he
really
believe
I
was
going
to run
back
to
him
after
he
shot Quinn? Was
he
really
that
narcissistic?
I
decided
not to respond. I
wouldn’t
have
been
able
to say
anything
nice.

“If
you
come
back,
I’ll
make
sure
The
Families
go
lenient
on
you.”

I
snorted
and
faced him.
“You’d
still
take
me down
there?”