I staggered to my feet with the remainder of Judd’s brain clutched in my hand while several inches of spinal cord dangled like a tail. Curious, I took a cautious sniff. It definitely didn’t smell like a human brain anymore. No desire to eat it whatsoever. I filed that bit of info away to pass along to Dr. Nikas, then stuffed the brain and its dangly bits into my jacket pocket. Dr. Nikas would definitely want to examine it. And me, for that matter.
After a few minutes to catch my breath, I dragged Judd’s body to the center of the island and once again searched him, but this time with the meticulous and thorough care that I used to search bodies in the morgue. It made no sense that he wouldn’t have the flash drives on him or in his car, especially considering how he’d believed the whole zombie thing was his ticket to freedom via Bear. Anger flared at the thought of Nick’s dad, but I tamped it down. I’d deal with his ass soon enough.
In the year and a half I’d been working in the morgue, I’d stripped and searched hundreds of bodies and found an incredible variety of objects in every possible nook, cranny, fold, crease, hole, or flap that the human body had to offer. My gut told me that drive was on or in Judd’s corpse, and by god I was going to find it.
Dawn was happily flinging orange and purple streaks across the eastern sky when I found the penis-shaped flash drive within Judd’s tighty-whities and tucked behind his nutsack. I took a moment to revel in weary triumph before shoving it deep into a pocket along with Judd’s car keys. One down, one to go.
The original had to be somewhere. I searched again. No drive. He’d either stashed it or given it to someone.
Not someone. Bear Galatas.
“Judd, you turd bucket,” I muttered then took out his knife and set to work separating his head from his body.
• • •
The sun was up, and my mood was shit by the time I finally finished sawing through muscles, tendons, windpipe, and spine. I clambered to my feet and gave the two pieces of Judd the finger. “Shamble now, asshole,” I muttered.
Though I wasn’t happy about leaving Judd’s body behind, there was no way I was dragging that thing with me. Instead, I rolled it into the water and trusted that the swamp’s flesh-eating critters would dispose of it, while I silently prayed that St. Edward’s parish wouldn’t end up with zombie gators.
The head was a different matter. I had no desire to carry that nasty thing back through the swamp. But, even more so, I absolutely did not want to leave it out here and give some microscopic fragment of brain the time and space it needed to regrow another zombie Judd body. Yeah, it was improbable, but so was the original zombie Judd.
Since the rifle was out of ammo, it didn’t matter anymore if it got wet. I slung the strap across my chest, hooked my fingers in the only secure grip on Judd’s head—his mouth—and accepted that the feel of his tongue on my hand would haunt my nightmares for a very long time. After half a mile, I broke
through a fringe of trees and could finally see radio towers on the horizon as well as a few other distinctive landmarks—a dead oak whose branches formed a twisted thumbs-up, and a bald eagle nest near the very top of a towering pine. I had a fairly good sense of direction, but even so it took me several minutes of confused puzzling before I realized why nothing lined up the way I was used to.
Nice job, Angel, I thought with a roll of my eyes as the answer came to me. In my not-quite-panicked flight of the previous evening, I’d managed to travel two-thirds of a giant circle. If I’d kept going, I’d have ended up right in Rosario’s lap. Obviously, I needed to implant a friggin’ compass in my hand.
I laughed at the thought. For a zombie, that wasn’t a completely ridiculous idea. Of course, if I decided to go with that level of body modification, I’d also get the satellite phone option, ’cause that shit would’ve been damn handy last night.
With daylight to help me make out landmarks, I estimated I had less than a mile to go. Still, it wasn’t a walk in the park, and my fading spirits and energy levels perked up at the sight of a flagpole thrusting up from tall grass. But my relief shifted to bewilderment as I neared it. Where was the parking area? I should’ve been able to at least see the outer edge of it by now. And hadn’t the flagpole been surrounded by bushes before?
I stopped in the knee-deep water, Judd’s head dangling from my grip as I stared in at the flagpole. It stood almost straight, and not far from its base was the remains of a concrete barbecue.
There are two flagpoles. How the fuck did I not know there were two flagpoles?
I checked the position of the radio towers and other landmarks, then struggled to visualize the whole thing from above. After a few seconds I gave up, splashed to a muddy bank and drew it out with a stick. Now it made sense. Not only was this pole near the outer perimeter of where the Tribe did most of its training, but I’d never actually been in this particular section before. Not all that surprising considering I’d only been out to Camp SwampyButt a handful of times to train with the security team. And, since Dr. Nikas had almost certainly never been out here, he hadn’t known the need to specify.
I broke into a run and hoped to hell there weren’t a dozen more flagpoles with barbecues to find and search. But no, a dull green, hard-plastic case rested far beneath the barbecue, hidden behind a battered sheet of corrugated metal. Hands shaking, I lugged the case out and dialed in the combination. At the click, I swung the lid up then literally cried at the sight of what had to be close to eighty brain packets.
Worry slipped away as I tore two open and sucked the contents down, and when I finished, I counted out ten more. That would be plenty to carry me through the next few days.
Probably. The V12 was using up brains like crazy, and I had a billion things on my to do list. Just to be sure, I went ahead and counted out another dozen.
My gaze fell to where I’d dropped Judd’s head in the grass. After a moment of thought, I stuffed both head and brain into the case, locked it, and shoved it back under the barbecue. Leaving them here wasn’t the best option, but it was better than my original plan of “stick them in the trunk of my car and hope for the best,” especially since I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to get to the lab. Plus, I didn’t want to risk being the subject of a headline like Murder Suspect’s Head Found During Routine Traffic Stop of Insane Woman.
Using my jacket, I made a bundle of the brain packets then damn near skipped the rest of the way back. My car was right where I left it, but parked twenty yards beyond it was Judd’s borrowed car and my last chance to find the second flash drive. I dumped the brain bundle on my hood then fished his keys from my pocket and went on to search the car from top to bottom.
Nothing even remotely resembling a flash drive. However I did find spark plug wires in the back seat as well as a phone that looked suspiciously like mine.
Shit. I spun toward my car then groaned at the sparkle of broken glass beneath my passenger window. “Asshole,” I growled. Judd had wanted to be absolutely sure I couldn’t get away from him.
But my years with Randy meant I knew how to reattach the wires. Once I did so, I crossed my fingers and cranked the engine, then let out a whoop when it started without a hitch.
“Suck it, Judd!”
It was several miles before my phone got a signal, at which time a bajillion missed calls, voicemails, and messages poured in—mostly from Nick, with two from Ben Roth, and a couple others from numbers I didn’t recognize. Nick’s were all of the “Are you okay?” variety, which I couldn’t deal with until I dealt with Bear, so I went on to listen to the voicemail from the unknown number.
Angel. A woman’s stressed whisper, but deep as if she was trying to sound like a man. Traffic noise and clanging filled the background. Just letting you know I sent the kid off safe and sound for his camping trip. My partner didn’t want him to go, but it all worked out, so don’t worry. I’m staying home for now.