White Trash Zombie Apocalypse (White Trash Zombie 3)

Like me. Bitch.

“Because you thought him to be an expendable grunt, you chose to punish him. For a brilliant woman, you are remarkably stupid,” Dr. Nikas said, voice tight. “Brian,” he called.

Brian pushed off the wall, face instantly composed into a neutral mask that completely hid that he’d heard everything and how pissed he was. He moved to the doorway. “Yes, sir?”

“Remove Dr. Charish from these premises until a decision can be made as to her…disposition.” He paused, and I heard Charish suck in a shocked breath. “And in the meantime,” he continued, “she is to have no more than three hundred calories a day.”

“Ari! No!” Charish gasped while I silently cheered. Three hundred calories a day? I knew damn well Dr. Nikas ordered that so Charish would get a hint of what real hunger felt like.

“Yes, sir,” Brian replied evenly. “Secure cell, sir?” he added, emphasizing the word “cell” a bit, and I had no doubt he’d done so simply to fuck with her.

“Most definitely,” Dr. Nikas replied.

“No, Ari…oh god. Please! You can’t do this. Pietro will…oh, god.” She was crying for real now, which surprised me. She struck me as the type to go cold and shut down. Maybe the thought of what Pietro would do scared the ice right out of her.

“I made the grievous error of trusting you with my interests,” Dr. Nikas said with undisguised reproach in his voice. “I will not do so again.”

I heard a muffled whimper, and then Brian said, “This way, Dr. Charish.” A few seconds later he came through the doorway, escorting her with a firm grip on her upper arm. Her hands had been secured behind her back with zip-ties, I noted as they passed. I didn’t bother to hide the fact that I openly watched her be escorted out. No one in the room was hiding it, Philip included.

Halfway to the exit, she began to struggle and tried to pull away from Brian. “No. No! This isn’t right!”

Brian visibly tightened his grip, fingers digging in. “Walk or be dragged.”

She let out a low cry. “You’re hurting me,” she said, stumbling forward again. “Ari didn’t say to hurt me.”

“He didn’t have to,” was his utterly calm reply as they exited. A few seconds later the outer door clanged shut.

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer person,” I muttered.

Philip made a low noise. Shifting up onto one elbow, I peered down at him. “Is it getting any better?” I asked quietly.

“Really dizzy…all of a sudden,” he said, voice definitely sounding more clear than earlier.

“Dr. Nikas?” I called.

He stepped into the doorway, and I was shocked to see that he looked anguished. He liked Dr. Charish, I realized with a start. Or at least he had before today.

I had a hard time wrapping my head around the kind and gentle Dr. Nikas finding anything at all appealing about that woman, but obviously there’d been something there. He’d called her brilliant. Had that been it?

Straightening his shoulders, he moved to Philip’s side and crouched. “What is it?”

“He says he’s really dizzy all of a sudden,” I told him.

Dr. Nikas checked the IV and monitoring devices, looked into Philip’s eyes. “Other than the dizziness, better or worse overall?”

“Thinking clearer. Pain’s easing some too, maybe,” Philip said. “Hard to tell, but I don’t think it hurts quite so much.”

“All of your vitals look good,” Dr. Nikas said with an encouraging smile. “I’m going to slow the drip down a bit, and I’ve started a mild sedative. If you can sleep, do so. It will be a few hours until you’re back to your normal level of stability.”

Philip managed a whisper of a smile. “I’m more than ready to sleep. Thanks for having my back.” He took a deeper breath. “I’m sorry, Dr. Nikas. For all this. Two days ago, Saberton cut out all real brains for me…and Tim and Roland. Only gave us their current alternative. I wouldn’t eat them, didn’t dare,” he said. “I used up everything you’d left for me, then was starving. Should have signaled. Wasn’t thinking straight and got desperate.”

“Understandable,” Dr. Nikas said. “We’ll take good care of you now. I’m sorry you didn’t get what you needed when you came here last night.” He gave Philip’s shoulder a light squeeze, then looked over at me. “Angel, may I speak with you a moment?”

I glanced down at Philip. The corner of his mouth twitched in a mild tic, but the general tremors had stopped, and he almost almost looked at peace. I checked in with my zombie-mama intuition, but it seemed to agree and didn’t urge me to stay by his side. Giving a nod to Dr. Nikas, I pulled a blanket over Philip, then stood and followed him as he passed through the doorway, down the hall, and finally into a small office.

He closed the door behind us and opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it.

“Why didn’t y’all put a stop to the testing Saberton was doing?” I asked, frowning. “Those people didn’t volunteer. That fake zombie shit really fucked them up. A woman died because of it.”