

Once Upon a Zombie Apocalypse

### JADE

By

### Jennifer Malone Wright

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

The Once Upon a Zombie Apocalypse series is copyrighted and its trademarks (example OUAZA) are registered and property of K.B. Miller and Jennifer Malone Wright and may not be used for anything other than the Once Upon A Zombie Apocalypse series.

Copyright 2013 Jennifer Malone Wright

###  DEDICATION

First and foremost I would like to thank K.B. Miller. We make a great team and this has been a very exciting journey. I would also like to thank all of the authors and readers out there who have been so supportive and patient while waiting for OUAZA to release. A very special thanks to my good friends Rose, Tracey and Shawn for your feedback and support. I would like to thank my street team and especially my hard working team leader Eric.

Most of all, I would like to thank my husband and children because they get to deal with my grouchy, moody moments that most writers go through.

I love you all!

### ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Willow Cross for being awesome and letting us use her book title for our code word.

We would also like to thank the folks over at Johns Hopkins Hospital for the help with scientific terminology and research.

Thank you to our wonderful editor Melissa Ringstead at There for You Editing.

Thank you to our cover artist Covers by Magical Design for the wicked cover.

Thank you to our beta readers for keeping your mouth shut. Now we know that you can be trusted to read for us in the future.

And finally, thank you to the writing community at large. Just remember, you better be nice to K.B and Jenn or you might end up a zombie in our books!

### Table of Contents

Journal Entry #1

The Beginning of the End.

Excerpt from Once Upon a Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 2

Excerpt from Savior (A Higher Collective Novel)

Other books by Jennifer Malone Wright

Meet the Authors

What is Oceans of Red

### Once upon a Zombie Apocalypse

### JADE

Entry #1

I always knew the world was going to go to shit, I just never thought it would be this way.

The part that pisses me off the most is that people like me aren't supposed to be surprised when the shit hits the fan. I have been preparing for the next world war or natural disaster to happen. But never, ever in my wildest dreams did I actually think that mankind would end with zombies.

It's so ironic. As writers, we create these horror stories for others to read about. All of it is simply fiction, stories that rot our minds and entertain us, but are never really a possibility.

When it happened, Kylee and I were together, thank God, and we managed to survive the first day. We promised each other that we would document the days of our journey so that our words would become immortal... because we are not. No one is safe now. Anybody can turn if they aren't careful. The zombies aren't our only fear either. The people have become something just as bad, maybe even worse. When disasters happen, people lose their humanity as the will to live drives them into survival mode. I've seen enough TV shows and read enough books to know what happens to people, but that is something to worry about later. Right now, my only purpose is to find my family. Well, we kind of have to find Kylee's family first because they are closer, but still, the mission remains the same.

I don't have a clue how we are going to do this. My preparations included shelter, food, water, and weapons. They never included my being on a freaking airplane and landing on a side of the country that I've never even been to. I have nothing, _nothing_ that I expected to have when this happened.

Our journey has only begun. I'm just glad that I'm not alone.

***

The Beginning of the End

"I'm going to miss you guys so much!" Kylee said, hugging our friends for the last time before we headed to the airport. I wasn't much of a hugger myself, but I managed to suck it up and give them all a nice squeeze so they wouldn't think I didn't care.

We were about to leave the biggest hotel in Kentucky and a rather large convention that had the place practically bursting at its seams. Words cannot even describe how it felt to finally meet all the other authors and fans we had previously only met online. It had been an extremely long weekend, but really awesome, too. We had spent the last few days running our author booths, paneling, and hurrying to get photo ops with the big time stars. Now it was time to move on to another convention in Virginia Beach, and I was more than ready to spend a few hours relaxing on a plane.

"Kylee!" I tried to get her attention. "The shuttle is coming."

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" She smiled widely and wished everyone safe travels. "Make sure to post on my wall or text me when you get home," she called out, bending down to grasp the handles of her pink plaid luggage. "I'm ready." She signaled the bellhop, who hurried over to take the luggage that she could not handle herself, which just so happened to be two gigantic suitcases that matched the one she was already wheeling out the door.

"Good bye everyone," I called, waving vigorously with one hand and clutching my one suitcase with the other as we exited the revolving glass doors. I watched them wave back and blow kisses, turning just in time to face a blast of hot, muggy Kentucky air. "Ohhhh," I whined. "It's so hot out here."

"Quit being such a pansy, Jade. It's not that bad."

"Not that bad! I'm not used to this. It was forty degrees when I left home, and it's one hundred and six degrees here. Not including the humidity," I added. "I can't wait to be out of this nasty summer heat."

Kylee shook her head, her blonde hair bobbing in its high ponytail. "It's going to be hot in Virginia Beach, too."

"It's got to be better than here," I muttered. Seriously, it was horrible. I was sweating _everywhere_ , even my hair was sweating. The hotel shuttle stopped in front of us, and the driver hopped down to help with our suitcases. She slipped the bellhop a few bills for helping and we boarded the shuttle. I had been hoping for air conditioning, but sadly, the van wasn't much cooler than outside.

The shuttle took off into traffic and I turned my head toward the window, gazing out over the Mississippi River. Having never been to Kentucky, or pretty much anywhere in the south, it was cool to get to see the Mighty Mississippi, including the riverboat parked near the hotel that sounded like the world's biggest ice cream truck. I gave the river one last look and leaned back against the seat.

Riding to the airport in a shuttle through Louisville was almost scarier than flying, but we made it to the airport in one piece.

"I have to check my bags," Kylee told me as the driver pulled her luggage down and set it on the sidewalk. "Should we get one of those carts?"

I shook my head. "I think we can manage to get them over to the airline desk without a cart." She and I both took one of the larger bags, so that we were each rolling two. Of course, there was a line to check our bags and we had to wait for what seemed like forever. By the time we got to the security line, where we had to wait some more, I was really starting to worry about making our flight.

"Do you think we are going to get through this on time?" Kylee slipped off her high heels, putting them in the tub along with her giant purse. I had a giant purse too, but mine was more like a messenger bag. Hers was some kind of zebra print thing with pink edging.

"I hope so." I added my own boots to a tub. "We can't miss this flight."

I could tell security was trying their hardest to get people through the line, but there were several people they had to stop and take aside to check their bags. Kylee and I had gone through our bags with a fine tooth comb before leaving the hotel. I was so paranoid about being stopped and searched by security, the last thing I wanted to do was give them a reason to stop me.

Finally, it was our turn. We pushed our bins through flaps on the belt and then walked through the giant x-ray machine, got wanded, hands dusted, and it was over. We retrieved our tubs and went to sit on a bench so that we could put our shoes back on.

I finished pulling my boots on and glanced up at the clock. "Oh crap! Come on, Kylee, we have to move!"

She followed my gaze to the clock and realized that we were running terribly late. "Damn it!" She slipped on her shoe and grabbed her zebra bag. "Let's go!"

I slipped my messenger bag over my head, jumped up, and ran with Kylee on my heels. The airport was packed, and we had to dodge people, accepting their dirty looks with a grain of salt. Kylee's heels clicked over the tile, and for a brief second I was actually impressed with her ability to haul ass in those shoes when she needed to. I searched for the gate as we ran, knowing that it was somewhere in this general area.

"There!" I pointed, spotting our gate number. "Wait! We're coming!" The airline attendant stood at the door to the ramp, just beginning to pull the door shut. I'd missed my flight before and I knew that once that door was shut, it would not be opened again no matter what.

"Please wait!" Kylee screamed out, far louder than I had, managing to catch the attention of the attendant. "We're here." She waved her boarding pass in the air and we arrived at the desk, sweaty and panting.

"You girls are lucky," the unsmiling woman declared as she accepted our boarding passes and scanned them.

"Thank you, thank you for waiting." I took the stub back from her. Kylee took hers as well, and we hurried down the ramp to where the next flight attendant was waiting at the door.

She greeted us, her lips parted in a wide smile. "Good afternoon."

"Finally." Kylee breathed a sigh of relief as we spotted our seats. Walking down airplane aisles happened to be one of those things I hated. Everyone stared at you, hoping that you weren't going to sit next to them, and then when you did, you could feel their disappointment over not having the coveted empty seat next to them. Luckily, this plane wasn't completely full so there were fewer people to worry about.

I ignored the small number of people who did happen to be staring, and came to a halt in front of our row. We had the whole row of four seats to ourselves. "I'm sitting by the window."

"Why?" Kylee countered. "I like the window and you had it on the way here."

I squeezed into the tiny coach seats and wondered how in the hell larger people sat in them. I'm not that big, and I barely fit. "Because, you are always getting up to go to the bathroom or something," I told her. "I get the window."

I finally got my big ass into my seat and was able to relax a little bit. Only a few hours to go and I would be able to lie down. I quickly adjusted and fastened my seat belt. I guess there was one upside to running late, we didn't have to sit and wait on a stuffy plane for half an hour for it to take off.

Kylee clicked her seat belt on then extracted a neck pillow from her zebra bag that, not surprisingly, was also zebra print with pink trim. She also pulled a paperback from her bag and kicked it under the seat in front of her. I rolled my eyes and leaned back, gripping the arms of the seat as the plane began its taxi across the runway. I wasn't afraid of flying or anything, but the ascent and landing part always made me nervous.

The flight attendant began her familiar safety speech that I knew by heart. "It'll be okay." Kylee leaned over the empty seat between us and offered me a stick of gum.

"Thanks." I accepted the gum and un-wrapped it quickly. Chewing gum helped the ears from hurting during the altitude changes. I tossed my wrapper in the little pocket in front of me, and then resumed my grip on the hard plastic arms of the seat.

The plane began to pick up speed, and I closed my eyes just as we lifted off the ground and rose into the air. Funny, most people who wanted the window seat liked to look out and watch the cities gradually grow smaller until they disappeared. Yet, here I was closing my eyes and missing it all. It seemed like forever, but eventually we reached the desired altitude and the plane returned to a smooth, flat position.

Finally, I was going to be able to relax. With that thought in mind, I let the tension out of my body and adjusted my seat back. "Did you get a hold of Colin yet?" Kylee asked.

I shook my head and ached a little bit inside at the mention of my husband. I missed him and the kids so much. "No, I we didn't have time before, so I figure I'll call when we get to Virginia and let him know we made it. The kids are probably making him crazy and I don't need to feel any more stressed out right now. What about you, any word from Brock?"

"Nah, Colton had football practice and they don't get home till pretty late. I'll call when we land, too."

I thought about my kids as Kylee lifted her book and began to read. I hated leaving them all home with Colin. Luckily, the oldest was old enough to help out with the four smaller children, which was a godsend or I wouldn't be able to attend any of the author conventions at all. Carly had just turned sixteen, so she could stay with them while Colin was at work. She was a good girl, not like most her age who screamed about how they hated their life and decided to go do drugs and wear black all the time.

"Excuse me?" A flight attendant stood in the aisle beside our seats. "Are you Kylee Mahafferty and Jade Warwick?"

"Yes." We both responded at the same time with worry in our voices.

She smiled, holding her hand out in a calming motion. "Relax, we have a fan up in first class who recognized you and has asked if you would come up and meet her."

"Oh!" Kylee un-buckled her seat belt. "Of course!" We both reached for our bags to grab pens and a few bookmarks that we always carried around with us. "Lead the way," Kylee told the flight attendant.

I scooted out into the aisle and we followed the flight attendant. On our way up the aisle through coach, I noticed for the first time that a lot of people on this plane had some kind of cold or something. God, I hoped I didn't get sick. Small, confined areas were the worst for picking up germs. A woman with two little girls sniffled and wiped her nose with a tissue just as an elderly man sitting across the aisle from her coughed in his sleep and phlegm spewed forth from his mouth, sticking to the seat in front of him. Ugh! Disgusting!

I wanted to say something, but the flight attendant had just lifted aside the curtain that separated first class from coach. Suddenly there was enough room for her to actually stand aside and let us pass through while she held the curtain. Once we were all the way into the first class area, she moved ahead of us again.

Boy, first class was a different world. Their seats looked all cushy, and they had tons of leg room and fancy drinks. I still didn't think it was worth paying _that_ much money for though.

"Excuse me," I muttered, stepping over an elderly woman's cane that she had stuck out into the aisle. I noticed the lovely, ornate carvings in the wooden cane as I stepped over it. You didn't see canes like that very often anymore. It was made of real wood and the carvings had a burnt, brown tinge to them. They looked Native American, but I couldn't say for sure.

"Here we are," the flight attendant announced. "Mr. Jackson, here are the two ladies you've requested to see."

Mr. Jackson held his hand out. "It's lovely to meet you. This is my daughter, Cherimoya, she is a huge fan of yours."

The flight attendant left us alone to visit. I studied Cherimoya for a moment. She looked to be about twelve. She wore her dirty blonde hair pulled back into a low ponytail, secured at the base of her neck with a glittering pink hair clip shaped like a flower.

I was sure I'd seen her father somewhere before, but I couldn't place him. Cherimoya beamed widely, having noticed us checking out her father. "My daddy is a music producer," she explained as we held out our hands to shake his and mumbled hello.

Then it hit me, I remembered where I had seen him before. Mr. Jackson owned one of the major Pop record labels. "It is so nice to meet you." I barely managed to get the words past my lips.

Kylee tilted her head. "Your name is Cherimoya?"

"Yes," she nodded, "but no one except Daddy ever calls me that. Most everyone calls me Cheri."

"Isn't Cherimoya a fruit?" Kylee asked her.

Mr. Jackson nodded his head this time. "Very well done, Mrs. Mahafferty."

Cheri bobbed her head again. "An exotic one! Daddy wanted to give me a name no one else had."

I smiled. "Well, I've certainly never heard of anyone with your name. So I guess he did a good job at picking it."

"Do you see that guy?" Cheri changed the subject just as I was going to ask her how to spell her name, and pointed across the aisle where we were standing. Kylee and I both took a look over our shoulders.

"Oh my God!" Kylee squealed just as I gasped and swung my head back to Cheri. "Is that

..."

"Yup." She nodded enthusiastically. "My daddy is his producer." Kylee and I returned our gazes to the popular young star. He was asleep, sitting beside his mother, who was always with him during his shows. He wore the bright red, high top sneakers that reminded me of the 80's and his hair had sort of a long swooped up side Mohawk. Personally, I didn't care for his music all that much, but standing right next to him on an airplane in first class is not something I would have thought was ever going to happen.

And yet, here we were. Awesome!

"I wish he wasn't sleeping," I whispered to Kylee. "Or I would totally try to get an autograph for Rachel." Suddenly, the kid sat up and coughed so loudly it sounded like he was going to barf on his mom.

"Eeeeww!" Kylee and I both scrunched up our faces in disgust.

"Maybe not." I tried hard not to gag at the snot running down his nose.

"Maybe he really does have that Beaver Fever."

I shoved her and tried so hard to hold back my giggles, but they slipped out anyway. "Oh my God, Kylee, it's not _Beaver Fever_!"

She shrugged, and giggled with me. "Well, whatever it is, I don't want it."

Still giggling, we turned back to Cheri and Mr. Jackson. I took out my pen and asked Cheri how to spell her name. Kylee and I both signed the bookmarks for her as she spelled it out and then handed them to her. She accepted with what appeared to be awe for a moment before looking back up at us.

I have to admit, I was dumbfounded. Here was this kid who hob knobbed with big rock stars on a daily basis, and she was excited about getting autographs from us. It was just a little hard to believe.

"Well, sweetie, we better get back to our seats. It's been so nice meeting you. And you as well, Mr. Jackson."

"It was our pleasure." Mr. Jackson smiled wide and shook both our hands again, then handed us each a business card. "Here is my card, in case you ever need anything music related."

I stared at the card, a little shocked that he had given us contact information.

"I assure you, Mr. Jackson," Kylee tucked her card away in her pocket, "you will be the first one we call." With that, we reluctantly turned and left the posh first class seating area for the bland, tight confines of coach. The old lady still had her stick in the way. I guess that was just part of the luxury of paying so much to sit in first class, you could take up all the space you wanted and it was all right. We simply stepped over her walking stick and gave her a nod. She didn't even crack a smile at us, she just glared. As we passed through the curtain, I heard Cheri call after us, "See you around!"

On the way back to our seats, I took another good look at the occupants of the plane. Thank God we didn't have to sit right next to any of these people. Yuck.

After we settled back down in our seats, Kylee took out a tiny pink bottle and squirted some of some of its contents onto her palm. The scent gave away its identity. Hand sanitizer.

"Let me have some of that," I demanded. It wouldn't prevent the germs in the air, but at this point anything would make me feel better.

"Here." She handed me the bottle. I probably used way more than necessary, but oh well. Whatever worked. I handed it back. "I can honestly say that I don't think I have ever wished for a flight to end so badly."

"No kidding." Kylee leaned back in her chair.

One of the flight attendants appeared beside Kylee. "Would either of you like a beverage?" She smiled and gestured to the cart.

I leaned over so she could hear me. "Can we both get a coffee please?"

Kylee grimaced. "Uh, no, not for me, airline coffee is disgusting." She smiled sweetly at the flight attendant. "Do you have vodka?"

"For eight dollars we do." She whipped out a little bottle of brand name vodka.

"I'll take it!" Kylee reached for her bag while the attendant poured my coffee.

It wasn't long before we were both situated with our drinks and she moved onward to the other patrons.

I drank my tiny coffee in about two gulps and Kylee did the same with her vodka.

She twisted the cap back on the empty bottle. "I really wish I had a freaking latte right now. You would think that airplanes would offer that type of stuff nowadays."

I nodded in agreement. Kylee had a coffee addiction that border lined obsession. The sad part was that I was right behind her with my love for quadruple shot hazelnut lattes.

The plane rocked with turbulence and the seat belt light came on again with a loud ding. Being the shining examples of goodness we were—and the fact that the turbulence scared the shit out of me—we buckled up.

"Crap." I clutched the arms of the chair again as the plane shook and lurched. I heard a crashing sound coming from the front of the plane, and one of the flight attendants immediately ran from the back of the plane up to where the noise was originating.

_Nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about._ I just kept reminding myself that this happened on planes all the time.

Then, a guy in jeans and a blazer hurried by us, his hand reaching for something at his hip. Oh my God. That guy had to be an air marshal.

Something crashed again, along with loud voices, borderline yelling.

"I'm going to see what's going on up there." I unbuckled my seat belt.

"Are you serious?" Kylee questioned me with wide eyes. "Why?"

"I want to know what's going on."

She waved me off. "Don't worry about it, the servants will take care of it."

I couldn't help it, I rolled my eyes. "They aren't servants, they are _flight attendants."_

"Whatever they are, they can take care of it."

Another loud crash followed by a child's blood curdling scream. _Cheri_! She was the only child up there besides the famous kid. I jumped from my seat and climbed over Kylee.

"Oh, fuck it! I'm coming with you!" Kylee had changed her mind about the servants taking care of it and was right behind me as I ran up the aisle through coach. I did my best to ignore the lurching in my stomach when the plane shook and jolted us back and forth against the seats and passengers.

Finally, first class loomed before us and I didn't hesitate at all. I ripped open the curtain, never expecting the horrors that we were about to encounter on the other side.

My eyes scanned many things when the curtain parted. Passengers were huddled near the back of first class, where we stood examining the scene. Cheri stood up against the wall of the plane, as flat as she could get, her eyes wide with fear and screaming at the top of her lungs. Her sweet face had blood speckled across her cheeks, as did her pretty blonde hair.

The blazer guy suddenly rushed back past us, bumping us aside and almost knocking me down into one of the seats. "Hey!" I called after him, wanting to grill him about what was happening, but there was no time for that. I quickly turned my attention back to the scene in front of me.

Two flight attendants were struggling to pull the young music prodigy off of his producer, Mr. Jackson. With Kylee behind me, holding fast to my shirt, we crept closer to get a better look since they were somewhat hidden by the seats.

"What the hell is going on," Kylee whispered, just as the flight attendants managed to pull the kid loose from Mr. Jackson. As they did, one of the flight attendants hands flew to her mouth and a piercing scream erupted. The other flight attendant remained calm as the crazy one began clawing at her. Frustrated with all that was happening, she turned and clocked that crazy bitch in head so hard that she fell to the floor unconscious.

Cheri screamed even louder and the other occupants of first class either squished even closer together at the rear end of first class or headed back through the curtain into the coach area. "Oh my God!" I shrieked. It couldn't be...

The famous kid's face was tinged yellow and had boils pretty much everywhere skin was exposed. The boils seeped out some kind of greenish looking pus and his eyes didn't look normal at all. They were not his usual light brown, but yellow and bloodshot, plus they had sunk way down into the sockets. He didn't look like himself at all. The worst part had to be the blood and chunks of Mr. Jackson's face that were all over his mouth and cheeks.

"Shit! Shit!" I yelled, shoving Kylee off me and rushing toward them. I totally should have been running the other way, but no... not me.

Stupid.

I gave myself one minute to glance at his mother and realized that she was doubled over and almost on the floor, all we could see was her jacket and her hair. The kid growled low and deep, curling back his lips that so many girls had once wanted to kiss. Now those lips were crimson with human blood.

Again, I took my eyes off him to see how Cheri was. She had fallen on her father, whose face was now unrecognizable, and her screams had been traded for sobs.

Another growl escaped the monsters lips and he lunged for Cheri, taking the flight attendant with him. She looked up just in time to see it happening, dodged and then jumped over the seat into the row behind her. In slow motion, I filtered out the screaming and tried to think.

"Jade!" I felt Kylee yanking on my shirt. I wasn't sure if it was a 'Jade, let's get the hell out of here' or a 'Jade, we have to do something,' but my mind voted for the latter. He was killing people; we had to do _something_.

Instinct took over and I reached out, grabbing the fallen walking stick the old lady had abandoned when she'd hurried into the back. I turned it upside down so that the handle was on the floor and gave it a hard push downward, effectively snapping the handle off and coming up with what was probably the closest thing to a weapon on the plane.

Since Cheri had jumped the seats the creature turned his attention to the flight attendant. She screamed and pushed against his chest, moving him far enough away from her to expose his face. It was now or never.

No second thoughts.

I charged forward and hoped that I wouldn't hit anyone else. A loud grunt escaped from within me as I used the walking stick like a spear, and with both hands I plunged it into the kid's eye socket as hard as I could. Blood and goo not only squirted out of the wound, but also from his other eye and nose, too. He stopped moving and fell limp. Without a second to breathe, the plane then tilted drastically to the right, trapping the flight attendant between that monstrosity I'd just impaled and Cheri's dead father.

"Oh, holy fuck!" Kylee screamed from behind me. "What the fuck was that? _You_ , you killed him!"

"Shit!" I screamed back at her, not even really hearing what she was saying. "Okay!" I yanked the shell-shocked flight attendant up and the plane rocked again. "Get up!" I shouted, and then turned to the other flight attendant. "Check on the pilots." Quickly, I pulled the still unconscious flight attendant up and set her in a seat, and then buckled her in so she wouldn't be flopping all over the place.

Kylee scurried over the seats to Cheri. "Cheri! Come here." She held out her arms and wrapped them protectively around the little girl. "It's gonna be okay." It sounded like she was trying to soothe herself instead of Cheri, but I knew Kylee and she was strong. I was glad she was there for that little girl.

I swiveled and turned toward them. "We have to get off this plane," I said evenly to Kylee. I was afraid I was going to be arrested for killing that kid. I was sure everyone on the plane would have vouched for me, but still, I didn't want to go to prison. I looked up at all the people standing back by the curtain and realized that there were only two left. The old lady stared at me with the same hateful glare she had before. She was probably pissed that I broke her walking stick. The other person was a young woman with a baby. Shit! A fucking baby! Why didn't she go into coach?

"Jade, we're 30,000 fucking feet in the air. How do you propose we pull that off?"

I went to where the dead kid/monster was laying and braced my foot on his head so that I could pull the walking stick out of his eye. I wasn't ready to give my weapon up yet; something in my gut told me I better hang onto it.

"Nooooo!" shouted one of the flight attendants and began beating on the door to the cockpit. "No, please no!"

"What is it?" I rushed over, clutching my stick. She had been looking through the tiny peep

hole into the cockpit, since the door would only open from the inside. She could only back off and point. Her hair was askew and covered in blood and goo from the... zombie. Her eyes were wide with fear and adrenaline, and her hands stayed clutched into to fists.

Looking through the peephole, I discovered what had her so upset. "Damn it!" I yelled out, and then gagged back the vomit that threatened to come up. Kylee was behind me.

"What? Dear God, what now?" She knew it was bad, but I don't think she would know just how bad unless she saw for herself. Otherwise, I probably would have spared her the terrible sight on the other side.

I moved aside and let her look for herself. "No! Oh my God! Jade, is he fucking eating him?"

"Shhh!!" I warned her. One of the pilots had gone off his rocker like the kid had and he was currently having a little snack on the only guy left in the cockpit who could fly the plane. From what I had seen through the peephole, the pilot being eaten was fighting off the other pilot who was munching on his arm. Zombie pilot had taken a large chunk out of the other pilot's arm. Bloody strips of meat and skin hung from his lips when the other pilot ripped his arm away and kicked zombie pilot back with his foot. It appeared that he was doing everything he could to get this plane safely on the ground. I shook the flight attendant for a moment to get her attention. "About how much longer till we're due to land?" I demanded.

"We should be descending any minute," she told me.

"Kylee, we need to find that blazer guy. I'm positive he is the air marshal. He needs to help get these people rounded up and calm." He should have been up here to begin with; why did he go the opposite direction anyway?

Finally we were getting it together enough to realize that we could hear the people on the other side of the curtain. It sounded like chaos had erupted back there. "You with us, Cheri?" I asked gently.

She was still sobbing, but nodded that she understood what was happening. Together, we moved back through the curtain, with Kylee leading the way and Cheri right behind me. People were out of their seats, yelling, demanding to know what was going on and fighting with each other. One stuck-up looking guy in a business suit stood above an old woman, yelling down at her, "You better move your ass, lady! If you don't get out of my way, I will move you myself you wrinkly old wind bag!"

Down a few rows from them, a woman was screaming at her husband, "I told you!" Her shrill voice carried over the other voices on the plane. "I fucking _told you_ we shouldn't have flown. That's it! I'm divorcing your stupid ass!"

We stood there, shocked, observing the behavior of these people who once sat so calmly in their seats. Insane was truly the only word for it.

"Holy shit," I whispered more to myself than anyone.

The flight attendant happened to be behind me and picked up the phone on the wall. "Please return to your seats and remain calm," she begged the passengers. "Please return to your seats."

Just then the plane jostled enough to release the masks from the ceiling, which really freaked everyone out, at least enough to get them to sit down.

I was freaked out, too; there was a good chance we were going to crash before we ever made a safe descent to the ground.

Over the intercom we heard, "This is your pilot speaking! We are going down, and it's going to be fast and hard. Fasten your seat belts, and hang on!" A scratchy sound ripped from the speaker, and then, "Dear God. We are going to be lucky if we don't crash." Click. That was it. But thank God! He was going to try and land.

With that, the plane tilted nose down so that we basically had to walk up hill. The blazer guy was coming toward us.

"Oh good!" Kylee waved at him. "Where have you been? Some fucking air marshal you are. You look more like a coward to me, running the other direction while my bestie had to do your fucking job!" She charged forward to tell him off, and he was shuffling toward us in sort of a catatonic state. She was right, some fucking air marshal he was, bailing on us when crisis happened. Where the hell did they find these people? Although, I had to admit that the flight attendant and the pilot were being amazing.

"Dude!" Kylee was using the seats to propel herself forward. Then I saw the two huge, red boils on his chin.

"Kylee! Get back, come back!" She paused and really looked at him as he continued forward. Then he opened his mouth and snapped his jaw in a biting motion, topping it off with a nice growl.

"Shit!" She stumbled backward. Kylee's stupid high heel caught, and with gravity not on her side whatsoever, she fell backward. I grabbed the tops of the seats to each side of me and lifted myself so that Kylee fell hard against the floor of the aisle and I went over the top of her. I swung my feet forward, ramming the heels of my boots into blazer guy's chest. He stumbled back but didn't fall. Luckily, it gave me enough time to grab my trusty killing stick. Another zombie killing grunt from me and I rammed the stick up under his jaw directly into his brain. Briefly, I hoped that grunting wasn't my signature move. Motionless... and dead, he fell into me and we crashed back into Kylee and Cheri, taking them both with us as we slid down the aisle back the way we had come.

The flight attendant stood by the curtain, flush up against the wall, trying to get out of our way. My feet were pointed toward the opening so I positioned my legs to catch each side of the doorway. I stopped moving and felt the repercussion of the impact all the way up my heels and into my knees. Kylee was in front of me, sliding down the aisle with Cheri pretty much on top of her. She caught the curtain on her way through to stop her descent even further into the front of the plane. Blazer guy slid up against me without any fanfare.

I reached up and felt along his waistline until I found what I was looking for. The gun. Thank God! I lay on my back with the flight attendant staring down at me and dropped the clip, checking the rounds then popped the slide to check and see if he carried a happy gun. Nope, no round in the chamber. I rammed the clip back into the weapon and popped the slide again.

"How do you know how to work that?" Kylee yelled from her spot below me. I lifted my head and looked down. She still hung onto the curtain tightly, and Cheri was clinging to her.

I shook my head in frustration and exhaustion. "Geez, don't worry about that right now. I can and that's all that matters." I moved my gaze back to the flight attendant. "You're doing a wicked good job, but do you know how the pilot is doing?" I had to yell to be heard over the screaming passengers.

She wiped her blood and sweat covered brow. "He... uh, he ..."

"What?" Kylee snapped loudly. "He what?"

The flight attendant coughed and pulled it together again. "He kicked Captain Smith's... that thing's head in. I watched."

I raised my eyebrows. "Seriously?"

Her head bobbed as if she was nodding for her life. "Yes, kicked it in till it died... till _he_ died."

"Good!" I flipped over onto my stomach, switching legs so that I was still propped against the door frame. I scooted back till I was on my hands and knees. God, I wished the freaking plane would even out.

"The descent is almost over," the flight attendant called out to us, strapping herself in at her spot on the wall. I felt the plane even out just a little, then a little more. I tucked the gun into the waistline of my jeans and then began to crawl forward, over the top of blazer guy. As soon as I was out of the way, he slid down toward Kylee, but not quite as fast as before because the plane was finally evening out. I looked back and watched Kylee roll over on her side in attempt to let Blazer Guy get past her and Cheri.

"Cheri," I called out. "Can you scoot over between those seats right there beside you?" She nodded, then slowly released Kylee and sort of flopped over between the seats.

The flight attendant picked up the phone and spoke into it, calmly, like a fucking pro. "We are going to be landing in a moment. Please, please, make sure your seat belts are fastened and remember luggage may fall from the overhead compartments upon impact. Try to stay calm and we will do our best to get you off the plane safely."

"You just rock." I smiled up at her when she hung up the intercom. The plane had been evening out the entire time she was speaking and I knew we were close when I heard the wheels expand out of the plane.

"Ladies!" the flight attendant called out to us. "Hang on!"

Heeding her warning, Kylee wrapped the curtain tightly around her arm and yelled up at Cheri to grab onto whatever she could. Instantly, she listened and grasped the bottom of the seat she was sitting in front of.

I was still on my hands and knees, looking over my shoulder at them. Kylee looked up at me. "Those jeans make your ass look amazing!" she called up to me. I should have expected that even in the middle of some kind of crisis, she would be able to be witty.

I flattened and rolled to the side, tucking myself in between the seats like Cheri had. Then we hit, hard. When the plane slammed into the ground, people screamed even louder. The overhead compartments fell open and carry-on bags rained down upon the passengers. The plane bounced up off the ground and then back to the tarmac. Shit, I _hoped_ we were on the tarmac. Each time the plane bounced so did we, our bodies lifting up off the floor and slamming back down again. Poor Kylee had the worst of it; flailing around the aisle, hanging onto that curtain. Briefly, I hoped that lady with the baby was all right.

"We have to get off the floor!" I hollered back to Kylee. "We are going to be trampled if we don't." I climbed up, leaning on the butt part of the seat and peered over the top of the backs. Oh shit, people were already starting to get out of their chairs.

Kylee had let go of the curtain and had Cheri by her side already and were heading toward me. I looked at the flight attendant. "Nearest door?" She pointed and I felt like an idiot. It was two seats down. We raced for the door while she unstrapped herself and explained to us that we would not be able to use the terminal, we would have to open the door and let down the slide.

"Seriously, a slide, like you see in the movies?"

She nodded. "It's either that or jump down without the slide and you don't want to do _that_." The plane was racing across the tarmac far faster than it should have been and I had a feeling we weren't going to simply roll to gentle stop.

"Hold on," Kylee told us. "I need my bag."

"What?" Seriously! "Kylee, stay here with us!" But she was gone, jumping over the tops of the seats instead of trying to fight the one way traffic in the aisle way. Shit. "Grab mine, too!" I called out after her, since she was already back there.

The flight attendant still held her position at the wall and lifted the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, please stay in your seats until the aircraft has come to a full and complete stop."

I watched as the people hurrying toward us appeared to stop and contemplate what she had said, and then they just kept moving forward not giving her the time of day. Screw that. She had done a spectacular job saving their asses; the least they could do was give her five seconds.

I stood on the nearest seat, made sure they could see my gun, and shouted at the top of my lungs, "Sit the _fuck_ down! Didn't you hear the lady?"

Over the seats I could see Kylee sliding over each set, trying to get back to us. The passengers that stood in the aisle finally decided that it would be a good idea to take a seat. I felt the plane breaking and we all lurched forward. I fell over the top of the seat because I had still been standing on it, like an idiot. Kylee crashed to the ground, having been in mid-hop over a set of seats. I heard her tiny scream of shock and then she popped up. We were now moving against the momentum of the braking plane.

"Kylee, let's get the passengers off first and then we will go. Get them organized."

I heard her speaking to the passengers, telling them not to rush the door but to go row by row in order and to be careful of other people.

The plane came to a full stop with a strenuous jerk. Thank the good lord; we made it in one piece. The flight attendant had unbuckled herself and came to assist with the door She lifted one of the levers, pushed open the door, and two things happened. The smell of sweet, fresh ocean air hit me and I realized just how rank and hot it had been on the plane. The slide popped out, instantaneously inflating and complete within seconds.

Just then, my phone beeped that I had a text. A fucking text in the middle of a zombie attack, now that was real life for ya. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I checked it and there was a single message from Colin. _Oceans of Red._

Kylee was by my side again peering over at my message. "Oceans of Red," I whispered.

She shook her head. "What, like the book? What does that mean? Why would Colin tell you that?"

"It's a code word, Kylee."

She scrunched up her nose a little. "Why would you use that for a code word?"

I looked up, at all the people and what we had just gone through. "We just liked the book, okay? Don't you remember what it was about?"

"Yeah, the Apocalypse, demons taking over bodies of humans. _Ohhhhhh!_ "

"Only it's not demons we're dealing with. If he's sending me this, he knows something."

Suddenly the pilot came staggering down the aisle toward us, bloody and battered. Huge chunks of his arms were missing and he had white froth surrounding his mouth. Shit! He was bitten and already turning. I pulled the gun from my waistline and fired directly into his skull. He dropped quickly. Cheri gasped and sucked back a sob.

"Thanks for getting us safely to the ground," I whispered. "Thank you so much." I hated that I had to shoot him. Inwardly, I fought breaking down. Since Colin sent that message, I knew this was not over... not by a long shot. I was going to have to continue to be strong when all I really wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry.

I cleared a sob from my throat with a slight cough and turned to Kylee. "It's time to get these people off this plane."

"Cheri, do you trust me?" Kylee asked Cheri, grasping her hand. Cheri gazed up at Kylee, her eyes wide with fear and adrenaline. She didn't say anything, but she nodded vigorously, letting Kylee know she did. With a confirmation from Cheri, Kylee then turned to me. "You've got the gun, and if all hell breaks loose up here again, you're the only one that can fire that thing. I'm going down first." Then, she gave my bag a look of pure disgust and threw it at me. It was no secret how much she hated my bag, and I guess a plane full of flesh eating zombies wasn't going to change that.

"You sure, Ky?" I searched her face for any hesitation. I did see a glimmer of nervousness in her eyes, but she lifted her lips into a smile and winked at me.

"I've got this. Send Cheri down after me."

I watched as she positioned herself in front of the open door and gave her ponytail a quick pull to straighten it. She secured her purse sideways over her shoulder and prepared to jump out onto the slide.

"Ky, take this." I held out my killing stick. Nervously, she looked it over and then snatched it out of my grasp. I was doing my damnedest to stay calm, for everyone's sake, as she turned back to the open doorway and jumped out onto the slide. Every inch closer to the ground she got, the better I felt. Until I detoured away from Kylee's progress to scan the surroundings and saw one of them standing at the bottom of the slide.

"Kylee! In front of you, kill that fucking Z-bag!" I screamed down to her over the salty wind. She heard me and looked up to see a dark-skinned man who had obviously turned, wearing an airport security outfit and standing the bottom of the slide like Kylee was a fast food drive through. He was covered in those nasty boils and white foam had formed around his lips. I felt my heart clutch in my chest. My gun hand flew up to try and get a bead on the zombie. I was a good shot, but I still worried that I might hit Kylee. My other hand grasped at my chest as if it were trying to calm the pounding fear.

"Oh, shit!" Kylee cried out and didn't even lift the damn killing stick. What the hell was wrong with her? She just lifted her legs up and screamed, flailing her arms around trying to find anything that would slow her descent.

It all happened so quickly. One minute she was speeding down the slide, and the next the heel of her shoe was stuck in the zombies head. Those fucking heels, who knew they would be what actually _saved_ her life? I would have thought they would contribute more to killing her than saving her. But, she was going to be furious about those shoes. They were that all I heard about for weeks after she got them.

The man's body stopped moving immediately and then roughly fell to the ground, taking Kylee with him because her foot was still in the shoe. She opened her hand and the stick rolled out of it, coming to a rest beside her. She looked at the stick with a combined expression of disgust and what the fuck before she twisted around, pulling her foot out of her ruined shoe. Once she was on her feet, she gagged and dry heaved a few times then spun around in a circle, probably looking for more of those monsters.

Finally, after she saw the area around her was clear, she looked up to me. Her eyes were wide from the adrenaline rush. I didn't even have to ask before she waved me off. "I'm fine. I'm fine," she called out. "My shoes are toast. I don't think "Zombie-Choo's" are in this season. Start sending them down."

I rolled my eyes as she brushed herself off. I knew she would be more worried about those shoes than she was herself. I turned to the crowd. Some of them were fearfully watching from the windows, others had a view from the open door, and a few had no view at all but were being informed of the situation by others. "Okay! Let's get off of here, but stick to row by row," I told them all sternly.

They did what I told them, row by row, but once they were up and out of their row they pretty much rushed the door, jumping onto the slide without any hesitation. Kylee stood at the bottom, watching them as they slid to safety, leaving the chaos and death of the plane behind them.

Finally it was time for the flight attendants to go down. I have no idea why, but I didn't want anyone left on this plane after I made my exit. "You guys next," I told her.

She held tightly to the other flight attendant, who had lost it back in first class. The lady still hadn't gotten her crap together, she was too traumatized from all that had happened. "Are you sure?" The awesome flight attendant lifted her eyebrows.

"I'm positive," I told her. "We will be right behind you."

She wrapped her arms a bit tighter around the other flight attendant, who was babbling about blood and death, and they jumped off the edge of the plane. I watched with relief as they glided down with precision and came to a smooth stop beside Kylee.

Kylee reached out to help them up. I waited impatiently, tapping my foot and wishing they would quit talking to each other so that I could get the hell off this plane. The sane flight attendant put her hand on Kylee's shoulder, looked up at me with an expression of gratitude, and then helped the crazy flight attendant off toward the terminal, the same direction all the other passengers had gone as soon as their feet had hit the pavement.

All right! Our turn. "Come on, Cheri. Are you ready?"

Before she could answer, a loud moaning echoed through what we thought was now an empty plane. "What the hell?" I pivoted to look behind me. "Shit."

Cheri's father was stumbling down the aisle, his sunken eyes staring at us from within what remained of his face. The meaty tissue was exposed and the little skin that was left dripped down from his face in disgusting pieces.

"No! No, no, no!" Cheri muttered and began backing up. Tears had already filled her eyes, and were making their way down her cheeks. "Daddy, no." She shook her head vigorously from side to side, as if trying to shake away a vision or a bad dream.

Unfortunately, this was no dream. My dumb ass had forgotten all about him and he had turned. Damn it. Now I was going to have to shoot him right in front of his daughter. "Cover your eyes, Cheri." My voice was firm. I didn't want to sound too harsh, but I wanted to make sure she was going to listen to me.

I peered to the side to make sure she had her eyes covered and then lifted the gun. The bullet hit the intended target, right through the eye and into the brain. Mr. Jackson dropped to the ground with a dull thud, disappearing from my vision.

"Let's go!" Quickly I grabbed Cheri and dragged her over to edge of the open door. I adjusted the strap of my bag across my shoulders so that it was sitting at my hip, and then sat down on the edge of the plane with my feet hanging down. I made enough room for Cheri to sit in front of me, but I could hold onto her with one arm. I needed my other hand free for the gun. The last thing I wanted was one of those nasty ass bastards waiting for us like they were for Kylee. It was best to be prepared.

I pushed off and we sailed down the slide. It felt faster than it looked from up top. As we descended, I scanned the area surrounding us for signs of movement, aside from Kylee. Cheri had tilted her head to the side and buried her face in my chest. Her sobs muffled into my shirt and my arm tightened around her shaking body. As the pavement approached us, I stretched my legs out, hoping it wasn't going to hurt when my feet slammed into the pavement.

It did, but not too bad. I wanted to kiss that pavement, seriously. It felt so good to be on solid ground again.

Kylee held her hands out to help us up. Cheri and I each grasped one of her hands and let her guide us into a standing position. As soon as I was in a complete upright position, I surprised even myself and lunged at her, hugging her tightly to me for confirmation that we were both all right. "You scared the shit out of me!" I managed to whisper through my tightened throat.

She chuckled nervously. "I scared the shit out of myself."

I pulled Cheri in against us and whispered in Kylee's ear, "Her father turned and I had to take care of it. She saw it all."

Kylee squeezed her arm around Cheri even tighter in response to my confession. This poor kid. It took a little bit for her to stop crying. We stayed in our little three person hug until the tears subsided and I felt she was stable enough for us to let go.

None of us said much until we had separated, and Kylee headed over to where the dead zombie lay with her shoe still sticking out of his forehead. The look on her face was an expression I'd seen on people at funerals. For about five seconds I fought with myself over whether I should harass her about the shoes or make her feel better. I decided to go with the latter and smiled widely. "You really _are_ lethal in those stilts. You've got great aim."

"Uh ... this," she said, gripping the toe of her shoe that still protruded from the man's forehead, "was an accident. It was all happening so fast that I forgot about the stick in my hand. I was just hoping to keep him away from me." She pulled on the shoe, trying to extract it from the dead zombies head.

Crack!

"Just fuc—" Kylee corrected herself, seeing Cheri's bright eyes watching her, "I mean, just flipping great!"

I wanted to laugh out loud, after all that cussing and foul language up in the plane, _now_ she was worried. Instead of laughing I shook my head and held out my hand. "Give me your other shoe."

She sighed, but reluctantly took her other heel off and handed it to me. I positioned the heel on the ground, holding the toe of the shoe, and stomped on it with the heel of my boot. Another loud crack echoed over the tarmac. I looked up at her and saw silent tears streaming down her cheeks. I sighed with remorse, knowing that these were her favorite shoes and had been a gift from her husband for the bestselling book we had written together. That book had landed us at the top of all the bestseller lists worldwide, we even got publishing and movie deals out of it. I knew the tears were genuine, not superficial, even though the damn shoes _did_ cost two thousand dollars, this wasn't about that.

"Here." I handed her what remained of the shoe. "We're going to have to find you a pair of shoes, but at least you won't be barefoot."

She brushed the tears from her sweaty face and then reached out toward the security guard's waist. "What are you doing?"

When she rose back up, she was holding a nine millimeter Glock. "One more of these couldn't hurt, right?"

I turned up my lips in a smile and nodded in happiness, thanking God that she had seen the gun on his belt. "Smart," I told her. Then she turned and began walking toward the terminal. I smiled behind her back, watching her awkward steps in the now heelless shoes, but before she could get too far I jogged a few steps and grabbed her arm, spinning her around.

"No. Were not in going in there. Think about it. If there are more of those freaks in there, we're trapped. At least out here, we have room to run." I tilted my head to the side, indicating all the empty space around us.

"It has to be over a mile to the end of the tarmac." She defiantly set her hands on her hips.

"Doesn't matter. We need to find a car." I turned and started walking. Cheri followed after me. I knew she was standing back there steaming about having to walk so far in those messed up shoes. To her, it was like stomping all over a dead body. "Have you tried calling Brock?" I called over my shoulder.

Kylee caught up with me and we walked together. Man, I did not want to walk a mile in this heat to the end of the tarmac. All around us the waves of heat rose up off the black pavement. Of course, being on a tarmac, there was nothing around to shade us from the blazing sun.

"No. I'll try him in a little bit. I wanted to ask you about the text. Are these things demons? Isn't that what Oceans of Red is about?" She asked.

I looked back at Cheri; for a little girl she kept up with our longer strides. She looked up at the mention of the book.

"Do you guys know that author?" she asked.

"Yes. We know her, are you a fan of hers also?" I asked.

She ignored my question, responding with one of her own. "Is that what these things are?"

I didn't look over at either of them. I kept my gun in my hand and continued to watch for movement on the tarmac. I knew I had to tell them, but I didn't want to. Kylee and I never lied to each other or kept secrets, and considering the situation, it was going to come out anyway.

"Spill it, Jade. What does 'Oceans of Red' mean?" she pushed.

"Colin and I set up code words a while back. 'Oceans of Red' means Zombie Apocalypse."

The look on her face was epic. "Are you telling me that the _dead_ have risen? Come on, Jade. Even _you_ can't believe that. This is reality, not a fucking book!" she scoffed.

Abruptly, I turned to face her. "Kylee, look around." I waved my gun in the air. "There are people trying to eat our fucking brains! Does that sound even remotely _normal_ to you?"

"Here we go again." She rolled her eyes. "Conspiracy theories, right? Explain to me, how the dead have been reanimated? You can't. When you die, you die. End of story," she yelled.

Damn it. Why the hell didn't she believe this? All you had to do was look around and see that it was happening. How annoying; the last thing I wanted to do was fight with her right now.

Then I heard it, the groans of the living dead monsters. My eyes flicked away from Kylee, searching for the source of the noise. Not that far behind her, maybe about ten feet, a male zombie shuffled toward us, driven by the smell of our flesh.

Having seen the look on my face, Kylee spun around to face the threat.

Shit! Without hesitation, I raised the gun, pointed it over Kylee's shoulder, and pulled the trigger. He fell instantly and we had nothing more to fear from that one.

Kylee turned to face me again. "I'm sorry for doubting you."

I decided against saying I told you so, but I did give her a bit of a look that insinuated it. I began walking again. "Let's go."

Without argument we continued walking, Cheri following along with us. As we walked, I thought about my family. I needed to get back to them, to know that my kids were okay. Hearing that they were all right was totally different than holding them in your arms and being there to protect them.

Kylee and I were both off in la-la land somewhere and the voices of several people instantly brought us back to reality. "Dude, it's them. I'm telling you," one of the loud voices declared.

All three of us stopped quickly and turned. All I saw was three young looking guys rushing toward us. Simple reaction caused me to raise my arm and aim my gun at them. Under normal circumstances, I would never aim my gun at anything that wasn't threatening me, but these weren't normal circumstances. People go crazy when crisis happens, so we really didn't know what to expect from these guys.

I heard Kylee rummaging around in that damn bag of crap she carried around. I knew she was looking for her gun, too. "When you get that thing out, keep it out," I told her in a calm voice just as she was extracting it from her bag.

The tall one was the first to address us. "You're Jade Warwick and Kylee Mahafferty, right? Like the author chicks that write about vicious vampires, and totally gnarly werewolves and shit?" His voice was slurred and they sort of wavered around bumping into each other. Son of a bitch, they were all fucking stoned!

I shook my head at the sheer stupidity of these guys. They were running around here in the middle of a fucking zombie attack and they thought it would be fun to get high. Dumb asses. Kylee and I often joked about people like this; we called them The Wasted Youth.

"No. You have us confused with someone else," I told them, trying to keep all emotion out of my voice. I nodded my head to the girls, silently telling them it was time to go. Slowly, we turned and began walking away.

Turns out, the stoners were even bigger idiots than I originally thought. They followed us while we continued forward. In reality, I wanted to run. I wanted to get as far away from them as I could. You simply cannot trust people and I didn't want them trying to join our group. We didn't even have any supplies yet, but when we did get some I didn't want to have to share.

Just when I thought they were going to follow us in creepy ass silence forever, a different voice than the tall guy spoke. "Seriously, man. I know you're them. Look, I've got one of the posters you signed for me back in Kentucky."

I let out a long sigh of exasperation and then we all stopped and turned back around. The heavyset young man was shoving a familiar picture in our faces. And then it clicked.

I remembered these guys from the convention in Kentucky. The kid holding the poster was wearing one of the most hideous costumes I had ever seen. It was way, wayyyy too small for him and I had no idea how he got his large body into it. I forced myself to look away from his terrible costume just in time to see more of those damn flesh eating bastards coming out of one of the outbuildings along the tarmac, shuffling their way along toward us.

Kylee must have seen them at the same time as me, but the boys, in their Mary Jane haze, didn't have a clue yet. I considered the options. I could shoot them, but I was already low on ammo with just the one clip. We could run, but then we would have these guys right behind us making us vulnerable. Looking out of the corner of my eye, I gave Kylee a slight nod. "We have to go. Don't follow us," I ordered their small group.

"Dude! You can't just leave us." The tall one shifted from one foot to the other.

"Well, we are leaving you," Kylee told them. "Deal with it." She turned around to face the direction of the fence.

The guy in the too tight costume stepped forward. I think his high was wearing off because he pointed at my gun. "If you are going to leave us to fend for ourselves, then you should give us one of your guns."

"Oh _hell_ no!" Kylee practically shouted, spinning back around to face him. "We fought for these, get your own."

The shuffling zombies were getting closer, pretty soon we would hear them. "We have to go now," I urged the girls and then turned to leave.

I took a few steps forward, as did Kylee. Cheri was right between us, so when we stepped forward, she was left a couple of feet behind us. Our mistake. I heard her small squeal of shock and pivoted around to find out what caused it.

Shit. This fucking kid in the costume had grabbed Cheri and was holding onto her wrist with both hands. "We will just take her with us then, if you don't want to give us a gun." The costumed guy turned the corners of his mouth up into a smirk and then gave Cheri a good yank toward him, wrapping his arm around her upper body, and pulling her up against him.

Cheri didn't really fight back. She just sort of stood there in a semi-catatonic state, staring at us. I couldn't even see a plea for help in her eyes.

I pointed my gun at his head simultaneously with Kylee pointing hers at one of the other guys. "Let her go, right fucking now," I shouted at him.

"Kiss my ass," was his amazing response.

Kylee placed one foot forward. "Don't think for a second I won't waste a bullet on your stupid ass."

The zombies were closing in on us and the first of their moans could be heard. The smallest boy out of the three raised his eyebrows and turned around. He had finally heard the moans and groans of the monsters, who were almost right behind him. "Holy shit!" He stumbled back a few steps into his buddies. The tall guy and costume guy, who still had a tight grip on Cheri, turned to see what the commotion was.

"Oh fuck!" tall guy blurted out.

She bumped my shoulder with her elbow and whispered, "Remember that meme I posted a few days ago?"

What? Why the hell was she talking about posting on the Internet at a crucial time like this? It took a few seconds while she waited for me to remember. Zombies were the newest big thing, right up there with vampires and werewolves, so people were making funny graphics to post online. The one she had posted was 'I don't have to be faster than the zombies. I only have to be faster than you'. She leaned in when she saw that I finally realized what she was talking about and mouthed, "Them or us?"

I nodded. It had to be done. As much as I hated it, we couldn't chance losing any one of our tiny group. I didn't really want to waste my ammo either.

My gaze went back to the zombies; there were four of them this time. I returned my attention to the three in front of us. They were all facing the zombies instead of us, the ladies with the guns.

It was now or never.

"Now!" I yelled to Kylee. We pummeled forward, slamming into the boys. We each pushed at one of the boys on either side of the costume kid who held Cheri. They stumbled forward, and costume guy let go of Cheri in surprise. She may have been in shock, but she was smart enough to slip around him and toward us.

"Hey! What the hell!"

The shortest kid stepped in front of the costumed one. Seeing our opportunity, we lunged forward and pushed again. I shoved as hard as I could, knocking the one I hit down onto the zombies. Kylee succeeded in slamming her body into the costume guy and causing a domino effect. Both boys tumbled down into the zombies. Then we turned and ran. Each of us grabbed one of Cheri's arms, lifting her up so that we could maintain our speed. Briefly, I looked back and saw that the two boys we had pushed looked dead and the other one was doing some crazy kind of run toward the plane with blood all over his right side.

We ran for a while because I wanted to make sure that we were far enough away from that death scene to walk comfortably. As we slowed, I saw Kylee look down at her shoes with utter disgust. I'm sure it wasn't easy running in those things.

After we had ran what I considered a safe distance, we slowed to walking. As we walked, I tried not to think about the kids back there. Why were they so stupid? Why couldn't they have just left us alone? None of that would have happened if they had just gone the other way when we told them to leave us alone.

A little ahead of us, I spotted one of those little carts you see the security and luggage people riding around in. They sort of resembled a golf cart. "Kylee, look at this."

Kylee didn't look so impressed, but Cheri finally showed a little bit of emotion and went bounding up to the cart. Suddenly, I saw a quick movement inside the cart and then caught sight of a bit of calico fur.

We all approached the cart as a group. Kylee crossed her arms; she hated cats.

Cheri reached her hand out to pet the little calico with an anxious hand. However, the cute little cat let out a low groan and its head spun toward us. Through its fur, those nasty blisters could be seen. Pus leaked out of them, matting the fur on the cat's oddly shaped face.

"Mother fucker! The animals, too?" Kylee screamed.

Shit! Damn it! I reached over, snatching the stick from Kylee's hand, and slammed it into the tiny head of little cat just as it lunged at Cheri. I closed my eyes with relief as the cat fell limp and Kylee pulled Cheri toward her, letting the little girl bury her face into Kylee's chest. Well, at least I killed something with the stick and didn't do my killing grunt, that was a plus.

_That poor little girl_ , I thought to myself. She had seen so much in this short time we had known each other. I truly hoped that this wasn't going to be our way of life now, but I had a feeling that it was probably headed in that direction. I lifted my foot and used my boot to slide the cats impaled head off of my trusty killing stick, which I just so happened to be feeling rather fond of.

I turned to back to Kylee and Cheri, and my heart sank. Cheri was bawling into Kylee's chest while Kylee held her tightly. God I missed my own kids.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Kylee's soft voice whispered down to Cheri.

I didn't know what else to do for her, so I just mumbled a quiet, "Me too, Cheri." I hurried over to them so that I could place a hand on her shoulder, giving her some sort of the physical contact that children needed. Knowing that was a traumatic moment for her, we just let her be until she felt that she was ready. Eventually she pulled her face away from Kylee's chest and looked up at us with her tear-stained face, but said nothing. Kylee turned and walked over to the cart where the cat had been.

"Can't we drive this?" Kylee pointed at the ugly little cart. "I mean, at least until we get to the fence. Look, we can see it already."

"Jade, do you know how to drive one of these?"

Before she could even finish her sentence, I was at the cart looking for the keys so I could turn it on. This was awesome, we could get to the fence way faster than walking and it would save poor Kylee's feet from the blisters that she was bound to have from her broken shoes. Alas, we would not be so lucky, there were no keys inside. Damn it! I kicked the tire in frustration. "The keys aren't in here. There's no way to start it."

Again, a moaning carried over the hot, windy air. Shit! Not again, can't even catch our fucking breath anymore. There were four of them stumbling toward us this time. "Cheri, get inside! Take this." I handed her the trusty killing stick and she climbed up into the cart far slower than I would have expected her to. Kylee and I took opposite sides of the cart to give Cheri as much protection as we could.

"Kylee, aim for the head!" My voice was calm, but inside I was shaking. This was just never going to end.

We waited for them to get within a decent range so we could be sure to hit them. The one in the front looked like a little old lady. Great, we had to kill an old lady. Fucking wonderful. Her wrinkled face was dotted with blisters and her yellow eyes had no focus. Even though they didn't really seem to see us, they still loped in our direction as if driven by the scent of our blood.

_Bang_! Kylee shot her. Grandma slumped to the ground quickly and unceremoniously.

While I was busy watching Kylee take her shot the tall man... er, zombie, ended up practically on top of me. I squeezed the trigger and nailed him in the head, then double tapped just to be sure. Another attacked right away. He slipped past my right side with his mouth open and snapping, trying to get a piece of my shoulder. Scrambling, I backed out of the way and slipped on something. I took a quick look down to see what the fuck was in my way and realized I tripped on the fucking zombie cat.

Then Cheri was screaming; loud, shrieking screams. Finally getting my shit together, I was close enough to reach out and aim the gun at the zombies head. _Bang!_ Another one down!

Without the others to worry about, I could finally turn to see what Cheri and Kylee were doing. Cheri had curled her tiny body into a ball with her hands covering her ears, wailing like a two year old. Damn it! The zombie attempting to get to her was the heavy kid in the too small costume that we had seen farther down the tarmac. Guess he had turned instead of dying.

He growled and swiped at Kylee, who spun to avoid him and fell off balance but didn't go down. His nasty zombie hand did manage to tip her bag off her shoulder and the entirety of Kylee's mobile mini-market spilled across the pavement.

"Son of a bitch!" she cried out.

Damn it! I reached over Cheri and grabbed the killing stick from beside her and chucked it over to Kylee, who snagged it out of the air and then slammed it down into the zombie kid's eye.

Whoo! She did excellent with that one! "Nice moves," I called over to her. "Those self-defense classes are really paying off." I topped the compliment off with a wink and jogged over to help her pick up her scattered belongings.

"I know, right? I didn't realize that I had actually learned that much," she giggled, but her eyes were already accessing how much damage had been done to the contents of her bag.

She lunged for her things. "Jade, grab those tampons over there." She pointed in between scraping more of her personal items off the asphalt. I grabbed the tampons in one hand and a travel sized deodorant stick in the other, shoving them back into the bag for her. Behind me, I heard a rattling noise and glanced over my shoulder to see Cheri holding one of those little brown bottles prescriptions come in.

"What does Hydrocodone mean?" she asked, giving the bottle another shake.

"Give me those." Kylee held out her hand. "They _mean_ not for Cheri." Cheri just shrugged like she could care less and tossed them over to Kylee. Ky was probably more worried about that than she needed to be, considering she felt the need to explain more. "They're for headaches," she added.

Suddenly, a large gust of wind flurried around us and picked up the scattered stack of bookmarks featuring our bestselling book. They flew away, fluttering and tipping end over end as Kylee tried to rescue them.

"Ky, let them be. I don't think that we're going to need them any time soon," I told her as I continued picking up all her junk. How in the world did she manage to cram all of this stuff in there in the first place? I mean really, who needed two wallets? I was surprised they even let all this crap on the plane. A low humming sound distracted me... again.

"Um ... what in the world is this?" Cheri wondered aloud. I looked over to see what she was talking about and promptly burst into laughter. Oh my God! She was holding a little gold cylinder that was disguised as a tube of lipstick, but the humming it emanated told me it was clearly _not_ a lipstick.

Kylee's face was flaming red all over. "That's a _personal_ item that you don't need to know about." She reached over and tore it out of Cheri's grasp, quickly turning it off and tucking it away in her bag.

I could not stop cracking up. Tears were streaming from the corners of my eyes and my stomach began to ache I was laughing so hard. Kylee, still blushing with embarrassment, looked over at me and rolled her eyes. In an attempt to stifle the giggles, I turned away so that I could finish picking up her things. My eyes rested on the scattering of items and I couldn't believe what I saw; there were several of those tiny little liquor bottles that you get in hotel rooms or air

planes. "Uh ... where did you find the bar, doll?" I picked up a tequila and a vodka, and waved them at her. Then I spotted the freaking cigarettes. "Hey, I thought you quit smoking?"

She laughed at my discoveries. "When I went back to grab our bags, the pushcart had fallen over and the mini bar, so to speak, was open. So, I filled our bags." She pointed down at my messenger bag. "Check yours. And, I did quit smoking. However, given our current situation, are you really going to bitch about it?" She held her purse out so that I could drop the items in. I had to admit, she did have a point.

Then my phone rang. I jumped about a mile, and so did Kylee and Cheri. My hand could not move fast enough as I reached into my pocket trying to get a good enough grip on it to extract it. _Please be Colin, please be Colin_. My heart beat quicker than before and tears slid freely down my cheeks. As soon as the phone was out, I saw my husband's picture displayed as the caller. _Oh thank God_!

"Colin? Are you okay? Are the kids safe? What about my parents?" He barely had time to answer before I had more questions for him. I needed to know everything and we couldn't be sure how much time we would have before the phones shut down. I really, really wanted to talk to him alone, so I gave Kylee a look that told her so. She just stayed where she was, not even acknowledging my silent request. I tilted my head, trying to get her to go away, and that didn't work either so I continued to talk to Colin. "But, honey ... how did it happen?"

"What's he saying?" Miss Nosey asked. Jeez, if she wasn't going to give us alone time I may as well include them in the conversation. I turned to face Kylee and Cheri then pushed the speaker button.

"Colin, you're on speaker. Go on, tell us what's happened."

My husband's worried voice came through the phone. "Girls, it's bad. Twenty-five thousand American troops were sent on a mission to Syria. An underground nuclear reactor was uncovered during a routine satellite sweep, and we were supposed to infiltrate and then occupy the area, so that their trigger-happy leader didn't nuke the world. An armed drone was sent in at night to take out a military compound less than a mile from that reactor. However, things went terribly wrong. The missile went off target and hit the nuclear complex. We didn't have the Intel that they were housing their biological weapons in the facility as well. It turned into an inferno, sending the whole site into meltdown. We still have no clue what chemicals they had in the area. But, something in that cocktail went horribly wrong." Colin seemed worried, but he was a lot calmer than I would have expected. We, on the other hand, stood there staring at each other with mirrored expressions of shock on our faces.

"But, how in the hell is it over here?" Kylee demanded, moving as close as she could to the phone.

"After the explosion, the mixture rained down on everyone. We were just thankful that our soldiers weren't dead. Intelligence still didn't know about that the facility we'd hit was sitting ass deep in biological weapons. Twenty-five hundred troops were left behind to secure the location, and the others were brought home. The scientists back on base said that the initial incubation period must've been seven days. Which makes sense, because all hell broke loose today. We got an S.O.S. from one of the last soldiers that turned over there. She radioed in that people had starting breaking out in pocks. About an hour later, she told us that she was watching her commander eating the other soldiers. Then we lost all communication." Colin paused for a second, and then continued, "By the time the troops made it back over here, they'd already been infected. They had physical contact with so many people; their families, friends, other military personnel, hell even perfect strangers. Jade, I've told you how the troops act. Some of them have been known to stop off in Germany or London for a quickie on their way back home."

"What's a quickie?" Cheri asked.

Oh, for crying out loud! Now we had to worry about explaining this stuff to her.

Colin waited a second, processing the third voice and then asked, "Jade, who is that?" I glanced at Kylee, telling her with my eyes that I had to tell Colin we had pretty much adopted a child.

"Honey, it seems as though I went out to attend a convention and picked up a kid." I winked

at Cheri to let her know I cared about her and that we didn't mind having her around.

The phone was silent for about ten seconds, and then Colin finally replied, "Well, we already have five. Might as well add one more, just to have nice round number, you know?" He paused and then whispered, "Jade, come home," The love and worry in his voice brought tears to my eyes again. I hated crying in front of people.

"I'm trying, babe," I whispered back, over the lump in my throat.

Kylee saw me struggling. "Colin, why is it spreading so fast now? I mean, we've watched a few people turn really fast."

"The incubation period after a bite from one of the infected is much faster, anywhere from two minutes to an hour. Nobody really knows for sure, but we do know this, if any of their bodily fluids mix with yours—"

"You're a goner." My words were just above a whisper.

"That's what we should call them," Kylee piped up. "We can call them, 'the goners'. I mean, we have to call them something, right?"

I cracked a smile and Kylee turned in my direction. I wanted to laugh, but it was a good idea. In TV shows and books they all had something they called the zombies, so why couldn't we have our own word for them?

"I like that," Colin said.

Colin's information was absolutely insane. We already knew it was happening, but what he was telling us was that it was going to get worse... much worse. Damn it, I just wanted to be home with him and my kids.

I glanced up at Kylee and realized that she was deep in thought. Oh no, I knew this was going to result in her inner genius making an appearance. Kylee may be superficial, but she _literally_ had an inner genius. "This thing is acting more like the influenza virus than a biological weapon. Even a regular retrovirus wouldn't spread this quickly. Normally the molecular mutation is slower. The beginning stages of a regular RNA would infiltrate the nucleus and begin the double process which would take weeks, if not months to spread. This is fascinating." Kylee paced back and forth beside us. "Scary, but absolutely fascinating."

"What is she talking about?" Colin asked.

"Yeah ... no. Could you maybe, dumb it down a little bit?" I don't think I understood a word she had said.

"Those idiots!" She threw her hands in the air and stopped in front of me.

I waved the phone at her in frustration. "Uh ... yeah. Care to fill us in on what's rattling around in that head of yours?"

"Those scientific geniuses," she held finger quotes over her head, "over there had to have mixed Nitrogen mustard, Hydrogen cyanide, and Yersinia Pestis. That would explain _why_ the mutation of the molecular structure is happening so fast. And why they're foaming at the mouth, and breaking out in those gross pustule blisters." She was still speaking genius and looking at me as if I was supposed to have understood that.

I was still waiting for her to answer me in layman's terms when Colin's voice came through the phone. "Holy shit and shinola! They added the Bubonic plague?"

Kylee, relieved that _someone_ understood her, let out a huge breath. "Precisely. That's a dangerous disease, in and of itself. But, mixing it with the other two components, and the radiation from the reactor ... well, it explains what's going on."

Now it was my turn to pace so that I could think things through. "Let me see if I have this correct. The government scared the shit out of us with 'mad cow disease' 'swine flu' and 'avian flu' and what's really going to kill us all is the zombie flu?" I stopped pacing when I was done with my rant, questioning her with my eyes.

"If you're infected, you're as good as dead." Rarely did she appear as serious as she did when she made that statement.

"Try Brock again," I told her.

She jammed her hand into her pocket and fumbled for her phone. Finally, she brought it out and was able to click on Brock's number. She waited, tapping her toes in her broken heels. For her sake, I hope he answered.

But, there was no such luck. I heard his voicemail pick up. "You've reached Agent Mahafferty. Please leave a detailed message after the tone and I will return your call in a timely manner."

Her face fell. Damn it, she so needed to hear his voice right now and know that he and Colton were all right. I reached out to rub her shoulder. "Listen to me, he works for the government. He found out, just like Colin, and took Colton back to your house. We'll head there first." I tried my best to give her hope and then got back to Colin. "Listen, honey, I have to go now. We have to get to where we are safe. You and I both know the phones aren't going to be up forever, so our plan is to go to Kylee's and get Brock and Colton, then head home. I have no idea how long it will take, so please don't worry about me too much."

"Just hurry," he said. "The kids need us both right now."

"I will," I told him. "I love you."

There was a pause then a choked, "I love you, too."

Reluctantly, I tapped the end call on my screen and watched my husband's face disappear.

We walked in silence after that, all of us in our own little worlds of sadness, hurt, pain, and hope. The heat was so horrible, I couldn't believe we had been going for this long. I had a feeling we were all going to be sore in the morning. Well, if we made it till morning. Speaking of which, that was another thing we needed to worry about. We had to get to a somewhat safe place by the time it got dark or we would never make it in the darkness.

By the time we got to the fence, we were all grumpy and tired, and the last thing we wanted to do was climb a fifteen foot chain link fence.

"We have to climb this?" Kylee demanded, her finger pointed at the top of the fence.

I nodded affirmation and watched her expression go from defeated to determined. Off in the distance we could hear cars on a highway somewhere. That in itself gave me hope that we might be able to find transportation. Before we set to climbing we tromped up and down the area along the fence to check for any dangers.

"Kylee, you go over the fence first," I told her. We were on the same wavelength. She knew that I wanted to go last so I could help from over here, but that Cheri couldn't go first either.

She nodded and then took what was left of her shoes off, tossing them up and over the fence. They landed safely in the grass on the other side. Then she headed up the fence. I don't know how she managed not to complain on her way up. She was barefoot and the chain link had to be scalding. Not to mention that it probably just hurt sticking her toes in the fence to begin with.

I breathed a sigh of relief when she got to the top. But, just as she was lifting her leg over the tippy top of the fence, we were all assaulted with a loud tearing sound.

Kylee froze, her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened.

Oh no! Her jeans had torn. Shielding my eyes from the sun, I looked up. The center seam of her pants had torn straight up, all the way from crotch to almost her waist, exposing one entire butt cheek. I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. "How's the view from up there, Ky?" I waited a few seconds, gasping for air through my laughter. "Because, down here we get to see ur-anus!" I bent over, clutching my stomach, with tears streaming down my cheeks. Oh man, what was going to happen to her next? This was freaking epic!

Glancing up at her again, I could see Kylee still sitting there, not even one bit amused. "I'm so glad that I can be the butt of your joke, Jade."

I laughed even harder at her. Oh man! She was never, ever going to live this down. "Jeez, Ky, even during a zombie apocalypse you can't keep your pants on!"

"Ha ha." She rolled her eyes and then scurried down the other side of the fence. All sarcasm was forgotten when she placed both her feet into the cool green grass though. I knew what she was feeling, we had made finally made it this far.

"Your turn," I told Cheri. She looked up at me and nodded, clutching the fence in her hands. Before I knew it, she was all the way to the top. Unfortunately, on her way down, her little foot lost grip and slid out of one of the holes.

Kylee was quick to reach up and hold onto her with both hands. I lunged forward and grabbed what I could of her clothing, trying to help hold her up as best I could. Cheri whimpered a few times and I sucked in my breath, hoping that if she fell it wouldn't be too hard. The last thing we needed was for her to break something right now.

She fell anyway. Kylee caught her with both hands and Cheri let out a little squeal. As she hit the ground, we were all graced with another loud ripping sound and the presence of Kylee's once covered, pink, leopard print bra.

Cheri was holding tightly to the light blue tank top Kylee had been wearing.

For a few seconds, Kylee silently assessed what had just happened. And then, the freak out happened. "Son-of-a-fucking-whore-bitch-god-damned-balls! Fuck it!"

I started up the fence, figuring that I'd better get my ass over there to help calm her down. Before I reached the grass, she started ripping the remainder of her clothes off. She tore at her pants like a wild animal ripping meat off the bone.

"Just screw it! Apparently the part that I'm supposed to play during the zombie apocalypse is 'naked-girl'!" she shrieked as I landed beside her.

She was the perfect storm at the moment. The laughter had completely cleared my system and I was feeling pretty good about being able to comfort her when the unthinkable happened. Her ponytail holder snapped, letting her blonde hair fall in a wave down around her shoulders.

I wanted to laugh, so badly I wanted to laugh. I sucked it up though; she needed sympathy, not us making fun of her right now. I took the shirt tied around my waist and held it out. "Put this on. We're going to have to find you clothes ... quickly."

The shirt was a light weight button up, so she was able to slip it on and cover the most important parts of her body. I felt so bad for her.

"Jade, I really have to have some—"

"I know, I know," I cut her off. "I'm gonna get that bitch some coffee. Bitches love coffee." I smiled.

Kylee slipped her shoes back on and we headed toward the sound of the highway. It was an intersection where the highway met the road. The three of us stood off to the side, watching as each and every car flew by us without even glancing at us. Of course none of them stopped. I probably wouldn't have either. And poor Kylee, standing there half naked with her button up shirt blowing in the wind. This wasn't looking good at all. I tilted my head to the side, silently saying 'come on' and we chose to follow the highway.

I kept the gun tucked into the back of my pants, not caring what anyone thought. I needed it easily accessible. We trudged along, our steps far less determined than when we had first started off on the tarmac.

My feet were aching and sweat was rolling down every inch of my body. We needed water... bad. If we kept walking like this, using so much energy fighting and losing fluid, we would be dehydrated for sure.

It had been quite a while since we had seen a zombie, and I was just beginning to think that maybe it wasn't so bad after all, when we saw a male one hanging out by a hideous yellow smart car. He hadn't seen us yet. His mouth had white foam at the corners and several of those nasty blisters were speckled over his face. They were leaking pus down into his snapping mouth.

I sighed and removed the gun from my waistband. Getting a bead on him wasn't hard. He must have caught our scent, because right before I fired he looked our way and let out a loud growl. A squeeze of the trigger and the bullet hit its target. He went down hard, falling into a lump beside the yellow car.

None of us said a word. It was like it was a way of life now and we had only been dealing with it for a few hours. No biggie, shoot a zombie and leave him lying there. Even the people driving by in their cars ignored the scene on the side of the highway. I eyed the yellow car and realized that this was the vehicle we were going to have to use.

"For fuck's sake! Seriously? The only fucking car—"

"You guys cuss a lot." Cheri cut off my rant before I could spew out anymore curse words. I bit my lip to keep from saying anything more and lifted my gun again. We moved toward the car slowly; I had the gun aimed at the car looking for movement around or within it. As I approached the door, I stepped over the dead zombies legs and pulled it open.

Whew! No more zombies inside the car. It was clear. Thank God! I carefully eased inside the tiny little car and looked around. Finally, a break; the keys were sitting in the cup holder. "The keys are here. And, Kylee, you're in luck, there are some clothes in here." I looked back at her and smiled. "Come on, girls, let's go."

From beside me, Cheri was peering into the car curiously. "There are only two seats. How are we all going to fit?"

Oh yeah. There were only two seats. But there was a little hatch in the back. Ducking into the car, I found the release lever for the hatch and pulled it. The rear door rose up as I removed myself from the vehicle. The look on her face was priceless, this little girl had been raised with the best of the best and now I was making her ride in a hatch back. "It's just for now, sweetie. We'll find a bigger car soon. We just need to get out of here." Somewhat reluctantly, Cheri climbed into the hatch and Kylee shut the door behind her.

We both needed a moment of silence, so we stood beside the ugly yellow smart car staring out at the sunset. It was so beautiful, which seemed so wrong. The world was going ugly and this sunset was just a reminder that the darkness was unveiling itself over the earth, and a warning of all the horrors that waited for us within that darkness.

As if right on cue, I spotted a big group of zombies, probably about twelve of them, lumbering in our direction beside the highway. One of them wandered away from the group and out in front of the speeding traffic. The stray was promptly hit by a semi-truck, which actually appeared to speed up instead of slowing.

Damn it. Time to go.

"I bet you want one of my cigarettes and little bottles of liquor now, huh?" Kylee leaned over and bumped my shoulder. She hurried to the passenger side, still giggling a bit, and I slid behind the wheel. Turning the key, I brought the car to life. It was a gas electric car, so we wouldn't need that much gas until the car needed charging. Then we would have a problem, because the electricity was bound to go down eventually.

I turned the car and we headed north. We would have to stop for supplies, but we could do that on the way. I only had a few bullets left, which was why we were not even bothering with the group of zombies.

We could do this. There was absolutely no way to tell what lay before us, but we had each other and that counted. We all had strengths and weaknesses, but no matter what we went through, we were going to survive this.

The beginning of the end of the world was going to be our bitch.

Don't forget to read Kylee's version of the story written by K.B. Miller

### Read an excerpt from Once Upon a Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 2

Damn it. I couldn't be one of those assholes who never trusted anyone. However, trust is what gets you hurt no matter what the situation.

Instantly, I wanted my husband with a special kind of hurt. He always knew what to do in any situation. After Colin crossed my mind, I knew for a fact that he would let these guys get their weapons so that they would have the chance to protect themselves.

"Fine." I lowered my gun. "Get what you need."

From beside me, I heard Kylee let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you," Zeke's loud voice growled, but none of them moved an inch.

"Well, come on, before we change our minds," Kylee urged.

With a look at each of his sons, Zeke led the way. I opened the little gate to the counter and let them through. "So, I'm Jade and this," I pointed at Kylee, "is Kylee and the little one is Cheri." I paused before continuing, "Sorry about all this, but you understand, right?"

Zeke smiled. "Sweetheart, if there is one thing I've learned never to underestimate, it's a woman... especially one with a gun."

Kylee pulled Cheri closer to the cart. "Come across many of those, do you?"

"More than I'd like to admit. I'm from Georgia, redneck heaven, and I've had more crazy ex-wives than I can count on one hand. These two, their mama shot me in the leg." He leaned over and lifted the hem of his shorts on his left thigh, exposing a really nasty scar.

Kylee's eyes widened. "Holy shit! She actually shot you."

Zeke nodded. "Yeah, thought I was foolin' around with one of the waitresses down at the Ranting Bull."

"The Ranting Bull?" Kylee questioned.

"It's a bar," David explained.

I threw some ammo boxes in the cart. "Guys, I hate to break up the introductions, but we really need to get our shit and get on the road."

While they all went about getting their ammo and guns, I made eye contact with Kylee to make sure that she would keep Cheri beside her. Then I went to the other end of the counter where the knives were displayed to look at the blades.

I grabbed three survival multi tools, the kind with the pliers and screwdriver on it, and shoved them in the pocket of my jeans. They didn't have a whole lot of knives; the place seemed to deal mostly in the guns and ammo department.

"Screw it." I reached under the counter and picked out two of the biggest Bowie knives, and then grabbed a bunch of smaller ones. With my hands full, I headed for the cart and threw them in. I also took out the knives from my pocket and threw those in, too.

"I need some of that duct tape over there." Kylee pointed at one of the aisle end caps, moving out from behind the counter.

"Good Lord, girl. I just have to ask, why are you naked?" Zeke asked her.

Kylee snatched up three rolls of duct tape. "I'm not naked."

"Uh, you're naked enough. What happened to your pants and shoes?"

Oh God, he mentioned the shoes.

Kylee turned away from the rack. "I don't want to talk about it. But, I did have pants a couple hours ago and you're lucky I have this shirt on." She flicked the collar of the button up shirt I'd given her."

The guys all looked at her in a way that said they would probably feel luckier if she wasn't wearing the shirt. But, oddly, it didn't feel creepy coming from them.

The bells on the door jingled again and four more people entered the gun shop.

Kylee froze. She was stuck in the space in between the aisles and the safety of the counter. She held onto her rolls of duct tape with one hand and her gun was in the other.

Time seemed to suspend and work in slow motion. The rolls of duct tape fell to the ground, hitting one at a time, bouncing up and then finally hitting the floor again, rolling away. Kylee had both arms up and supporting her weapon, which was pointed at the new bodies in the shop.

These guys were almost an exact opposite of Zeke. They were dressed like little wannabe gang bangers with their saggy pants and boxers sticking out over the top. The guy in the lead wore a white wife beater tank and had his black hat on sideways. His saggy jeans sported a chain and also a belt that didn't do the job it was intended to do. He had his own Glock and it was pointed right at Kylee. The three behind him wore pretty much the same thing minus the wife beater. My mind took them in one at a time, trying to differentiate between them. One had on a black tee shirt with a white logo on it that I couldn't read because it was written in that old English crap, another had on a red backwards baseball cap and the other had his head shaved bald. All of them had guns.

Shit.

"Well hello there," the lead fuck head mumbled, tracing Kylee's body from head to toe. "Just stay where you are. Don't move a fucking muscle," he told her.

I felt the air lodge in my throat and my heartbeat quicken. I so did not want to take my eyes off of Kylee, but I had to make sure Cheri wasn't in anyone's line of fire. I looked to the right without turning my head and saw that David had pushed Cheri down and she was lying on her stomach on the floor. He was crouched beside her with his hand resting lightly on her back in a non-aggressive way. Trusting that he would keep her safe, I eyeballed Zeke. He held a classic Remington shotgun in one hand and a Desert Eagle out on the counter in front of him. Thank fuck he had been loading clips and had them beside the gun.

He caught my gaze and gave a slight shake of his head that said 'this is not good' and then raised his shotgun at the wannabes.

"Get out," Kylee told them.

"We came for guns and we are going to get our guns," the guy in front said, his Glock still pointed at her.

God, if he shot her I would rip him apart limb from fucking limb. He would wish he had to tango with a zombie instead of me. "Lay down your weapons and we will get ours and leave," I called out.

Leader of the wannabes shook his head. "Don't think so. We have a whole lot of people waiting for us to come back, so we're gonna need all of them." He waved his gun in a circular motion, insinuating that he meant all of the weapons in the shop. "So put your gun down and step aside."

Kylee didn't take her aim off of him. She held steady, which was uncommon for someone who didn't shoot much and also had a gun pointed at her. Must be all the muscle control she learned in her fucking pansy yoga classes.

"I said, put your gun down." The fucker took a couple steps toward Kylee and I heard Zeke raise his arms, probably taking aim with his shotgun.

Kylee held her head high, still unmoving. "You put your guns down and get the hell out of here."

Boom!

The shot resonated throughout the whole place, echoing off the walls and penetrating our eardrums. That son of a bitch had taken a shot at the floor beside her feet.

Kylee moved only her eyes. She looked down at the hole in the floor, a few inches away from her feet, and then shifted her gaze back up at the wife beater wearing fuck head. The whole incident only took seconds, but seemed like forever. I watched her eyes move in contemplation of which decision was the right thing to do.

And then she shot him.

### Read an excerpt from Savior (A Higher Collective Novel)

A full length novel by Jennifer Malone Wright

Sweltering heat emanated from the searing flames. Alex ignored his blistered skin and burnt clothes. He plunged both arms into the blazing orange inferno without a second thought for his own well-being. His hands frantically flailed until he found what he searched for. He pulled the charred remains up and hugged them to his chest before he gave a desperate glance toward the others.

Smoke curled into his mouth and nose and made it nearly impossible to breathe.

" _Hurry, hurry. Get out now," a gentle voice whispered into his ears. "You must go right now if you want to live."_

However, he couldn't leave them behind.

" _Go now," the voice whispered more urgently._

Sparks flew when a giant log broke in half and fell from the ceiling. It crashed onto the floor less than two feet from where Alex stood. Flames engulfed the fallen wood and created yet another obstacle.

The voice tried again, crying out, "Hurry, Alex!"

Alex knew he needed to move if he wanted to live, but he paused for a moment to question whether he even wanted to bother. The flames grew while Alex stood motionless, undecided. Suddenly, a great push from behind thrust him forward toward a wall of fire.

***

Alex stirred in his mahogany coffin, one of the best money could buy. He felt the soft, white velvet lining rub against his cheek, but it didn't comfort him. He panted like a thirsty dog and writhed helplessly inside the narrow wooden box.

His eyes snapped open. First, he checked his hands for burns, but he found none. He groaned while he became more aware, and realized he'd had another nightmare.

He sighed, wondering if the recurring dreams were going to last forever. He reached up and unlatched the locks he'd installed for his own safety, or at least his peace of mind. He pushed open the lid and sat upright. His gaze wandered across the room while his mind tried to fight off the feeling of dread he had about the night ahead.

In the center of a large stone room that was buried deep beneath his house, his coffin rested on a massive stone slab with Egyptian hieroglyphic carvings around its edges. The carvings read, 'Death is not but eternal life.' The slab and coffin were the focus of the room, with the only other items being his slippers and a small table that held a candelabra and a box of wooden matches.

Alex lit a match and touched it to the candle wicks. A soft glow lit the room and let him safely climb out of his coffin. When he slammed the lid shut, the hollow sound reverberated off the stone walls and quickly died. He wedged his large feet into his slippers, padded to the wide steel door and punched a series of numbers into an electronic keypad. The door emitted a soft whooshing sound when the lock released.

Yawning, he stepped through the door and into a maze of tunnels that worked their way into deadly traps scattered throughout his underground chamber. Another whoosh signaled the door locking behind him. With the candelabra in his right hand, Alex moved through the maze and watched the flickering shadows play on the walls.

Alex stopped short and blinked. He saw what he thought was Malcolm's face, shining menacingly in the light ahead. He held the candles out toward the face, but the image wavered in the candlelight and disappeared.

_Hmmmm_ , he thought, _perhaps the night ahead will prove eventful after all._

Except for his echoing footsteps, the tunnels were deadly silent. Once he reached the end of the tunnels, he faced yet another heavy steel door with an electronic lock. Again, Alex entered a code on a keypad and exited the tunnels into a small closet.

Finally, he came to a thick oak door that simply needed a key. He removed the key from the pocket of his pajama shirt. Alex unlocked the door, entered the actual bedroom of his house, and relocked the entryway to the tunnels like he always did.

More out of habit than concern, Alex scanned the room with all his senses. Despite popular legend, the many mirrors in the room reflected his image off each other.

Alex gazed longingly at the four poster bed in which he never slept. The thick mattress was clothed in burgundy blankets with piles of decorative pillows scattered across the head of the bed. Burgundy and black dominated the color scheme: black carpet, burgundy walls, and sheer black curtains shading the windows.

Preferring the softer light of candles, he bypassed the light switch and went to the dressing table. He placed the candelabra on the table and picked up a candle that stood in a golden holder with biblical carvings on its base. Each time he lit the candle he was reminded of his time in Rome. The things there were so beautiful he couldn't resist bringing something home for himself.

Alex knew his hobby of decorating bordered on obsessive. He brought back things from his journeys all over the world to put in his main house in Reno. But his house was finished.

On top of that, his casinos practically ran themselves. His place on the Higher Collective only occupied him every now and then.

He found it an awful feeling, having no purpose.

He tried to ignore the weakness that plagued his body with pain, indicating it was time to feed again. Glancing at his nightstand, he noticed the blinking red message light on his cellphone. Pushing back the pangs of hunger, he checked the messages.

Damion's smooth voice came through the earpiece. "Hey Alex, I've set a Collective meeting for tonight. Something is going down with Malcolm ... I really don't like the feel of it. I think we all need to get together to talk about this one. Eleven, conference room."

Clicking his phone shut and throwing it on the bed, Alex went to his closet and rummaged through his clothes. With exacting care, he chose a black Armani suit, complemented by a dark red dress shirt. Dark red was his power color, and he loved to feel powerful.

In the connecting bathroom he stripped out of his pajamas. The reflection staring back at him was one that would never change. Until the end of his existence, each time he looked in the mirror, he would see a twenty-eight-year-old man. His harsh Russian features would forever remain without wrinkles, and his coal black hair would never gray. His eyes, though, told the story of his age, and even he could see the stories in them.

His bare arms and chest still held the large muscles of the hardworking man he had been as a mortal. Although, his chest now bore the one mark he had allowed himself to get. He ran his fingers over the red longevity symbol. He had chosen longevity as a marker for being immortal. Like it was yesterday he remembered China and the tattoo shop where he had received the tattoo. As a last minute decision he asked the artist to add the three koi fish in a circle around the longevity symbol because the koi fish were associated with life-long good luck. And he felt like he sure need some of that.

Alex continued to think about China and its rare beauty while he carefully applied a dark, skin-colored foundation to his face and hands to cover his paleness. It was worth the effort to prevent mortals from questioning his light skin. After checking himself in the mirror again, Alex donned his black leather overcoat, a long flowing garment that swept the floor.

He allowed himself one last approving glance in the mirror, grabbed his briefcase off his dresser, and left the room.

He opened the garage door and sighed with pride. The room glimmered with glossy paint and shiny chrome from the many vehicles. He chose his orange '69 Mustang, because he wanted to stop at the church before the meeting, but he didn't have much time to spare. He slipped into the driver's seat, set his briefcase on the seat beside him, and then, with the turn of the key, the car came to life. After he backed out of the garage, he shut the doors with a remote and roared his way out of the long driveway.

At that hour of night, the pine-tree-lined streets were deserted. Alex liked that. Living outside the city, between Reno and Lake Tahoe, gave him more privacy. Although it was raining, he opened his window halfway to let in the fresh scent of the rain-washed earth.

When he approached the city, he took in the view of the lights. For Alex, each time was like the first time. The lights were like beacons, calling to him, enticing him. For that matter, he thought the lights were like vampires, deceivingly beautiful, alluring, and full of promise.

_Until you're bitten,_ he thought.

Unable to help himself, he chuckled and continued the drive into the city. Traffic there was crazy compared to the lonely streets near his home. Among the multitude of hotels and casinos dominating the city, he kept his focus on the Lucas Hotels and Casinos—the massive towers stood tall and proud—while he drew closer to them.

He passed the exit and kept going for a few miles until he came to a stop in front of a large brick church. He parked the car, ran through the rain, and ascended the cement stairway. Alex found the church deserted and locked, as it always was that time of night.

Taking out his set of lock picks, he thought about the old days when churches were never locked. They were always open for the public whenever someone needed to be close to God.

Upon entering, he felt a presence; not God, but something else.

Danielle.

She had always had a habit of following him when she was invisible. Although he knew she was there, he rarely let on. He couldn't think of any reason why she would want to keep herself secret from him, since she knew he would tell her anything she wanted to know. Besides, she could read minds.

Although the bricks muffled the sound of the rain, its presence was evident. It drizzled down the outside of the multicolored stained glass windows.

_It's like they are melting,_ Alex thought as he stared at them.

An aisle separated two sets of pews, and at the far end of the church, behind the podium and the large choir section, was the baptismal area.

Following his usual ritual, Alex knelt in front of the podium at a short wooden table that, without fail, held a fresh flower arrangement. It also held a large leather-bound Bible, always opened to the same verse: John 3:16.

Alex lowered his head and spoke aloud to the empty church, his voice echoing in the darkness. "Lord, forgive me. I have sinned. I live a life of sin. Yet, you let me live. Again and again, I ask how that can be. How is it that you could let something as evil and corrupt as I live on this earth and walk with the humans you created?"

He dropped his head lower.

"I still don't understand a lot of things you have shown me, Lord. I'm depressed. I've never asked for anything from except guidance and strength, but it's time I humbly ask, just this once, for you to bless me with something to give me the will to go on."

A clap of thunder shook the walls of the church.

"This depression has become too great. I can barely rise from sleep when the sun sets. None of the hobbies that previously occupied me so well interest me anymore."

Alex paused and took in a deep, shuddering breath.

"I would never try to bargain with or demand anything from you. I would never be so bold as to assume I'm owed anything. All I ask is for some kind of meaning to this life, or after-life; whatever you wish to call it.

"I need a reason to persevere. After all, I no longer have a family. The only thing I have, besides a few friends, is the everlasting torment of being one of the most unholy creatures to walk this earth.

"Please hear me and consider the needs of one of your servants. Thank you. Thank you so much for everything you have given me. I would do anything for you. I am yours in all ways, and I am yours in everything.

"In Jesus's precious name, Amen."

When Alex rose from his knees, contentment flowed through his veins and filled him up. He felt the same every time he prayed.

A moment later, he rushed out the door, stopping only to relock it like he always respectfully did.

***

"Do you think he's ready?" Damion asked.

"He's past ready," Danielle murmured while she slipped off her perch on the railing that separated the choir area from the rest of the church. "Damion, his depression has to end."

She felt Damion follow her to the front pew, on the right side of the aisle. She wanted to sit so she could see the altar.

He sat next to her. "I know Alex was chosen for this, but how do we know it will cure his depression? It could end this present situation, but begin another lengthy and dangerous one. How do we know this will not be the straw that breaks the camel's back?"

Danielle smiled. "I have known Alex for almost four hundred years. Even though he thinks he is dammed, he keeps his faith in God, and _that_ , my dear friend, is the strongest kind of faith there is."

"So he'll do it?"

"He has yet to decide."

"I hope it goes the way we've planned."

"So do I, Damion, so do I."

"Why do you always come here to watch him pray? Don't you think that's like invasion of privacy or something?"

"I am his guardian."

"You _were_ , when he was a human. He hasn't been mortal for a long time. I know enough to know you aren't required to be with him at all times."

"That's true, but his prayers are a most important time for me to be with him."

"Why?"

"He's convinced God doesn't hear his prayers. That's why he comes here almost every night. He could go on living a sinful life, believing he is dammed anyway, but he doesn't. It's vital he has some reinforcement of his faith in God. I know he feels me here."

Damion shook his head. "We'd better get to the meeting. I'll see you there."

Damion left. Danielle didn't want to leave the church. She looked up at the large cross on the wall above the baptismal. "Come on, Big Guy. His time to shine is finally here, so let's show him how much you really have in store for him."

She reluctantly stood, walked back down the aisle, and moved transparently through the tightly locked doors.

### Other Books by Jennifer Malone Wright

Savior (A Higher Collective Novel)

Once Upon a Zombie Apocalypse – Jade (Always free)

Once Upon a Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 2

The Vampire Hunter's Daughter Part 1

The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Part 2

The Vampire Hunter's Daughter Part 3

The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Part 4

The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Part 5

The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Part 6

The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: The Complete Collection

(All six parts a total of 72,000 words)

The Arcadia Falls Chronicles is The Vampire Hunter's Daughter story continued

Love & War (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles 1)

Taking Talon (The Arcadia Falls Chronicles 2)

### Meet the Authors

K.B. Miller and Jennifer Malone Wright are both authors of the paranormal and urban genres. Once Upon A Zombie Apocalypse came about after many discussions on how they would survive the zombie apocalypse. Their survival strategies were so different from each other on some accounts; they decided it would be fun to see the two differences trying to survive together. K.B. and Jennifer met as mere acquaintances and have now formed a life-long friendship.

K.B. Miller is best known for her best selling series The Moon Coven. She has several other works in progress which will release in 2013. At home, K.B is a full time writer with a very supportive husband and son who is too smart for his own good. In her free time K.B. likes to read, dabble in graphic design, watch her favorite shows, and spend time with her other love... coffee! She is also an owl enthusiast and swears she will someday ride a unicorn.

Jennifer Malone Wright is best known her YA paranormal series The Vampire Hunter's Daughter. Her other works include the follow up to The Vampire Hunter's Daughter called The Arcadia Falls Chronicles and her other vampire novel The Birth of Jaiden. Jennifer is the mother of five crazy kids and wife of a soldier. Jennifer also loves coffee, talking on the phone with her equally crazy friends and has a passionate affair with Red Bull.

Find K.B. Miller on the web

Please visit K.B.'s website at

www.kbmillerbooks.com

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Find Jennifer Malone Wright on the Web

Please visit Jennifer's website at

www.jenniferwrightauthor.com

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If you would like to know what Oceans of Red really is then please visit the author page of Willow Cross!

Thank you Willow for letting us use your title for our code word!

