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  Suddenly, the wall behind us started to crumble like a dry cake. At first, I thought it was just from the wear and tear on the building, but then I noticed a sledgehammer busting through the drywall. I aimed my gun, fearing a hybrid invasion, but a man stuck his head in.

  “You might think twice before firing,” he said, looking around at all the weapons that were trained on him. “I’ve got one of your men.”

  I recognized the man almost instantly as Jim, Z’s brother, who had questioned me at their camp before I escaped with Asia. I couldn’t forget the crazy whack-job after the way he’d roughed me up.

  A second later, Jim shoved someone’s head through the gap.

  “Damon!” Rex shouted. “When did they get you?”

  “Please help me!” Damon said, sounding desperate. “They tracked you down, heard your gunfire.”

  “You know we’re trapped, right?” Nick said. “We’ve got rotters in the corridor!”

  “I’m quite aware of that!” Jim snapped. “The question is, do you want this guy back alive, or should I feed him to those things...or maybe turn him into one myself?”

  “We don’t have time for this,” Lucas whispered. “Just let me go in and take them out.”

  “No! They’ll kill Damon!” Buddy shouted. “You play by their rules.”

  “Let’s make a deal,” Jim said. “I’ll show you a back way out, a way to bypass the zombies.”

  “And what do you want in return?” I asked, not trusting him one bit.

  “Claire,” he said, staring at her hard. “Give her to us, and we’ll give you this fool and show you an escape route.”

  “Not happening!” Nick said defensively.

  “Then he dies,” Jim said calmly.

  “That jerk has no idea who he’s dealing with,” Claire whispered in my ear. “I’ll kill him just like I killed his brother.”

  I turned to Nick. “She killed Z. And they’re after revenge. That’s why they want her.”

  The door burst open, and my heart lurched as a chorus of threatening moans filled the room. The furniture shook and shuddered as zombies pushed and shoved at the blockade, determined to get through. I knew we couldn’t possibly take on that many, so our only choice was to do a swan dive into a dark pool or try to run down the corridor again. Negotiations were now off the table. The temporary blockade did little good, as dead nurses and doctors fumbled around the furniture, reaching for us with long, dead fingers. Fortunately, it was enough to distract them and give us the few extra precious seconds we needed.

  Nick, Val, Lucas, Rex, and me charged Jim and his men, hard and fast. I could tell they didn’t expect us to take them on, especially with the zombies reaching for us through the furniture, but we weren’t about to run. It was a risk to try to save Damon with all of the undead quickly pushing their way in, but we wouldn’t leave any man behind.

  One of Jim’s men swung at me and connected with my jaw. Pain exploded across my face, and rage flooded through me like a tidal wave. I swung and gave him a punch of my own, sending his head flying back. He crashed into the wall and crumbled in a trembling heap, then fell down face first.

  A tall, lanky man with a scraggly beard launched an assault next, swinging with a hard left hook. I sidestepped, then kicked his stomach. He came back swinging. I blocked the punch and countered with an uppercut to his neck. Coughing, he staggered backward, then fell to his knees, struggling to breathe.

  Another guy set his sights on me literally, pointing his gun. In a life-or-death moment, I lunged and knocked the gun out of his hand. He kicked, but I ducked his roundhouse. When his foot swept by, I blocked with my forearm. The man switched to old-fashioned punches, and I slapped them away, deflecting his attack. I noticed a steel beam directly overhead. I grabbed it and kicked the man with both feet, sending him flying.

  Rapid growls made me turn toward the direction of the noise. In a blur, jaws snapped just inches from my face, razor-sharp teeth aiming for my cheeks. I pounded my attacker’s neck with my fist, giving me those few precious seconds to reach my weapon. With my heart thundering, I grabbed my gun and fired. The thing flung back, its lifeless body dropping to the floor. The zombie had caught me off guard, though, and I had almost paid the price. I swallowed hard when I glanced around and saw more zombies breaking through the barricade. “We don’t have much time!” I yelled, pointing.

  The man I’d hit in the neck glared at me like a wounded bear. Ignoring any pain, he launched himself at me and slammed me down to the ground in a power-move that would have knocked the wind out of Hulk Hogan. He slammed his boot toward my face, but I rolled aside just in time. I jumped back to my feet as quickly as I could. Like a sledgehammer, my fist connected with his stomach, and down he went again.

  In a blur, Lucas hit Jim with the butt of his gun before he knew what even hit him. When Jim fell, Damon was finally free. Hissing, screaming, and cursing at the sight of their fallen leader, Jim’s men shot at us. Multiple bullets flew overhead as Lucas fired back. I ducked just in time, and a droplet of sweat rolled down my face as more bullets hissed past my ear. Jackie and I took cover behind an overturned desk, and I lifted my head and returned gunfire.

  Crack!

  Suddenly, the door burst open, and more starving zombies lumbered in.

  Jackie pulled me over to the hole, and I shoved my flashlight deep in my pocket.

  “Go!” Val yelled. “Jump!”

  “Jackie first,” I said. I wanted to make sure she got out, especially with all those bullets flying around.

  Without another word, Val grabbed me and shoved me through the hole. Before I could even protest, I was flying through the air, heading toward a brown pool that I hoped wasn’t full of gnashing teeth.

  Chapter 3

  Jumping into a cold pool wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but I only had three choices at that point: fight the white freaks, fight the crazed gang freaks, or jump down into the pool and fight the green freaks. It was going to be a freak-fest either way.

  I crashed into the water with a giant splash and landed in the deep end. The ice-cold water hit me hard. I spread my hands and feet apart and flailed my arms, trying to slow my plummet; it had always worked for cliff-diving after all.

  “Everyone okay?” Nick yelled.

  “Made it,” Asia answered.

  “I’m good,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

  “All right, kiddos. Everybody outta the pool,” Lucas ordered, fear tightening his voice.

  My eyes widened in horror as I was suddenly greeted by a milky-white glare. My pulse ramped up. I blinked the water out of my eyes, then shined my light up on the withered face. I jumped back, dizzied by blood rushing into my ears. The decapitated head was still blinking its eyes and snapping its jaws, bouncing around in the water and moaning. I had never seen such a grotesque display, and the scent of death invaded my senses. I knew then that our reality was far worse than anything my mind or even horror movie makers could ever have dreamt up. In a blind panic, I reached for my knife. I stabbed the bobbling head through the eye and moved away from it as blood gushed from its open wound. It gurgled for a moment, but the moaning finally stopped.

  The smell of decaying flesh was overpowering, like something out of a nightmare. My muscles tensed as I realized I was immersed in some sort of zombie stew. Countless dismembered hands, arms, legs, torsos, and heads floated all around me. I wasn’t sure if that was a result of Val’s shooting or just their decayed bodies disintegrating from being in the water so long.

  Through the darkness, I spotted a rotting arm with peeling skin and a deep gash. I splashed to move it away from me, but another arm and leg came my way as the ripples drifted in my direction from all the others splashing in my direction. I gasped in horror and gagged at the noxious odor. “Jackie!” I screamed when I looked around and couldn’t see her through the blackness of shadows.

  Something bumped my leg, and I looked down but couldn’t make out what it was. I quickly moved away from
it to look for Jackie, but something brushed against me again. I shined my flashlight down and could have sworn I saw a huge figure swimming through the murky water. “Uh, guys,” I said, “Watch out! The girls didn’t kill ‘em all.”

  I knew I had to get my butt out of the pool, but I also wanted to make sure that all of my friends were okay and weren’t being drowned or eaten. I blinked and looked again, but I didn’t see anything but darkness. My hands began to tremble, and I had to take several deep breaths to calm myself as I headed toward the blue-tiled edge to climb out.

  Suddenly, a horrible thought raced across my head: What if one of those things bit me in the water? Before I could consider that any of the undead, floating debris might have sunk its teeth into me, I was hit in the head by crumbling dust and plaster. Splashes echoed beside me as the others jumped and landed in the water, and I tried to move out of the way so I wouldn’t get hit. A giant piece of the ceiling and part of a humongous beam fell into the water next, blocking our way, and we had to swim to the shallow end to get out. More of the ceiling crumbled, dropping chunks of plaster into the water around us. When two more beams fell, pinning me underwater, I was terrified. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, but I used all my might to desperately push and shove the heavy beams off of me. With a grunt and a heave, I was free.

  I kicked hard to swim to the surface, then took in several glorious gulps of air, relieving my burning lungs. I knew I was lucky. I called for the others, but then I felt a swipe and a grab. Gasping, I instinctively reached for my gun. But it was gone. Fingers tightened around my leg, then pulled me underwater with incredible strength that I knew couldn’t be a zombie’s.

  I held my breath as inky darkness surrounded me. I couldn’t see, but I flailed, punched, and kicked my attacker. We tumbled around as I desperately fought to get control of the situation. Those same cruel fingers then wrapped around my neck and squeezed. Harder and harder, the brutally strong hands grabbed my throat.

  I couldn’t breathe, and my lungs began to burn again. As dizziness threatened to overtake me, I panicked, worrying that I’d signed my own death warrant by diving into that godforsaken pool. Don’t black out, I told myself. You can’t die today, Dean—not on your eighteenth birthday. My lungs demanded that I breathe, but I took in too much water. I was losing the battle quickly, and I began to think I would not survive. No! I don’t wanna die—not here, not underwater. So much is at stake. The notes, the serum...but I’m drowning!

  It was a frightening way to go, even worse than being devoured by one of those undead nightmares. Certain that I would be dead soon, I gripped my knife and used my last bit of energy to plunge it deep into my attacker’s gut. The odd thing was that nothing happened; it didn’t even faze my enemy. Hybrid, I thought. Only one of those things would have the intellect to steal my gun and pull me under the water to kill me.

  A jolt of adrenaline shot through my veins. With a thrust, I rammed the blade into the hybrid’s head. Its fingers loosened, freeing my neck. I had struck my target with perfect precision, and I quickly pushed the horrid creature back and swam to the surface.

  When I came up, I was coughing and spitting up water, gasping for breath. The hybrid floated up next to me with its long, blonde hair swirling around in the water like seaweed. It was clearly female, and I was worried for a moment that I had killed or hurt an innocent woman. Chills shot through me the more I debated it. I had to make sure, though, so I nudged the corpse.

  She didn’t move.

  Slowly, I turned the body over. A grotesque face with a gaping hole in its nose stared up at the ceiling. “Hybrid,” I said.

  Still struggling to breathe, I kicked at it with my heel. The cursed thing had tried to take me out, and I was furious. I looked around at the other splashing figures in the water. “Look out, guys!” I yelled between gasps. “We’ve got some hybrids too.”

  Some of the men with us were suddenly attacked as well. The sneaky hybrids had been lying in wait. Lucas and Nick were already out of the pool, fighting their own hybrid demons. Kate suddenly popped her head up just enough to scream before she went back down into the murky water.

  “Kate needs help!” Rex screamed.

  Panic ensued, and we really had no idea how many we were really up against. I rushed over to where I’d last seen her and gazed down in the pitch-black abyss, wondering where she’d gone. My heart raced in horror for a moment, but her head popped up again for a split second as she fought with something in the water. The thing had hold of her like a crocodile in a death-roll.

  Rex pointed his gun.

  “No! You might hit her!” I shouted.

  Asia was the next to disappear beneath the depths, and my stomach lurched.

  The others shined their lights over. Lucas and Nick jumped back in, swimming like lightning toward us. They went to help Asia while I stayed to serve as Kate’s backup. I grabbed my knife and focused. As soon as the hybrid broke through the surface, I sprang into action. My blade sank deep in its forehead, and black gore poured out like rotten water from a faucet. I grabbed the thing and threw it off Kate, and she bobbed to the surface, gasping for air.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Y-yes,” she said.

  I maneuvered around the dead corpses. “Let’s get outta here.”

  “Dean!” Jackie said, her face erupting in terror.

  “Get to the edge!” I said. “Watch for hybrids.”

  Sucking in a deep breath, I shined my waterproof flashlight around again, only to see another eerie pair of white eyes staring blankly ahead. Fortunately, that one was already dead. It was riddled with bullet holes, lodged in its torn, ripped face and neck, thanks to Val and Claire’s shooting spree.

  Another zombie reared its ugly head from the water and moaned in a frenzy at the sight of a possible meal.

  I pushed the girls toward the edge. “Secure the pool area,” I said. “I got this.”

  Its limbs moved sporadically as it tried to flail toward me.

  Destroy the enemy, I thought, reciting a page out of my brother’s military playbook. Inflict damage to your foes. I reached for my knife again and stabbed the vile swamp thing right through the eye, spilling another stream of black ooze into the grotesque pool.

  Darting and weaving through the torsos, mangled limbs, and bodies, I glanced up at the deck. Kate had found a sword somewhere, so when I saw a zombie lumbering toward her, I yelled. She quickly put her new weapon to work. Like some sort of action hero, she sliced its head off in one clean swipe, leaving the headless body to topple backward. In an instant, the decapitated head began snapping its jaws.

  “Watch out!” Nick shouted.

  “Kill the brain!” I said.

  She raised her sword again and deftly plunged it into the head. Blood spurted onto the concrete. She wiped a spray of blackish-green blood from her arm.

  I climbed out.

  “Hybrid got my gun,” I said.

  I was chilled to the bone and dripping when Jackie ran over and leaned into me. I wrapped a freezing arm around her, but there wasn’t time to snuggle or to share any body heat. We needed to keep going. Shivering, I grabbed my flashlight and started to look for a way out. The floor was slippery, so we had to watch our step.

  “Gun,” Jackie said, pointing to a zombie wearing a black jacket, with its hair in a crew cut.

  I kicked it, but it didn’t move. I pulled the Glock 22 from the zombie’s waist; in our battle for survival, it was not wise to pass up a much-needed weapon. I pulled the mag and checked the chamber.

  “Fully loaded,” I said.

  Jackie shot me a nod. “Lucky break.”

  Before we took more than five steps, a hungry corpse stumbled over a white chair and snarled, biting at the air like a ravenous dog. Half its face was chewed off. As I looked at it, pure rage consumed me. I held my gun at arm’s length and pulled the trigger. It packed plenty of power. The mindless monster blinked, then closed its eyes forever. I let off three more shots to
dispose of its friends. Shots rang out all around me, and more and more bodies crashed to the floor in bloody, quivering heaps.

  “Ah!” Rex suddenly screamed from behind us.

  I turned and saw a snarling zombie in dirty white scrubs, about to crunch down on Rex’s shoulder like a pretzel. I aimed carefully, pulled the trigger, and watched the thing fall to the floor.

  “Thanks,” Rex said, looking at me with wide eyes. “I... Man, that thing just sneaked up on me from out of the shadows.”

  “Keep a better eye out,” Nick said.

  I stuffed the gun in my waistband. When I saw an exit sign, I excitedly motioned to the others. “Over here!” I shouted.

  Gasping moans made my stomach clench. A group of zombies lumbered toward us from beneath the exit sign. It was a small herd by comparison to some I’d seen, but there had to be at least twenty five of them.

  Lucas cocked his gun and fired.

  A zombie with a zigzag cut across its face staggered toward me. I fired, placing a gaping hole right between its eyes. When two more ambled my way, I took them out with headshots, silencing their hungry moans.

  “We can’t get out. There are too many!” Buddy shouted. “Whose dumb idea was this anyway?”

  Ignoring the complaints, I looked at Nick. “Can we risk it?”

  He quickly looked around and assessed the situation. “We have to. If things get outta control, head back, and we’ll try to go through the main exit.”

  “Let’s do this!” Claire said, pointing her gun around.

  “Okay, people,” Nick said, rallying the troops, “let’s fight hard for this victory.”

  “Take out the rotters!” Rex shouted.

  “Eat lead!” Lucas roared, then fired.

  Adrenaline flooded my veins. With gun in hand, I assumed my stance and prepared to fire. We bravely faced the undead, those jaws of death that were anticipating a fresh meal. They walked toward us slow and clumsy, their throaty rasps making my hands shake. I aimed my gun and pumped several shots into the mindless monsters, vowing that not one would come out alive.