Chapter 7

Daisy's POV

I blinked awake in a vehicle and found myself looking up at a steel roof.

"You're really bringing Daisy back, Cap? She's a Z."

"First love. He can't let go, even after she's turned. I'll give him this, though. Daisy's the strangest Z I've ever seen."

"Since when do Zs take naps? HQ didn't put that in the briefing. Hang on, let me check the Doomsday Survival Guide."

The voices were muffled, coming from up front. The cabin was so dark I could barely see.

A figure moved closer. "It's been forever since I've seen Daisy. Let me get a look. I only caught a glimpse earlier, but she looked exactly the same. You've got a pretty tight hold on her, Cap. Does she still look the way she did back then?"

Carter shoved him away with one hand. "Get lost."

The others' shoulders shook as they tried not to laugh.

"I told you not to mess with him. Silverwolf hates hearing that. But he's not wrong, Cap."

"Did you all forget? Every time we played truth or dare, he said Daisy was his first love."

"You three talk too much. Keep your eyes on the road."

Only then did I realize I was in Carter's arms, still wrapped in the blanket.

He gave a low growl, hauled me to the back row, and propped me against a stack of supply crates. Laughter broke out up front.

"Am I wrong? Come on, don't you think so too? She looks just like she always did."

To my surprise, I found it a little funny. I knew those voices. It took me a while to put faces to them: Hank Morris, Ezra Finch, Jamie Cortez.

"You awake?" Carter asked quietly, right above my head. "Don't listen to them. I made up the truth-or-dare thing to get them off my back."

I had no idea how to respond, so I stayed still. I'd gotten good at that. But how had he known I was awake? It was like he could read my mind.

He pointed at his eyes. "Awakening. You read the Doomsday Survival Guide, so you know what that is. I can see in the dark now."

He snapped his fingers. Thin strands of blue electricity crackled across his fingertips, giving off faint sparks.

"That's one of my abilities. It's still not stable."

I kept still and watched his fingers. Reading about it was one thing. Seeing electricity come out of somebody's hand right in front of me was another.

I was still looking when the vehicle lurched. Something outside roared. If I'd still been human, that sound would've terrified me.

Hank swore from behind the wheel. "Holy shit. Did the grizzly get out of the SF Zoo?"

"Did it mutate?" Ezra asked. "What tier is it?"

He pulled out a tablet as if he were checking something, then brought up the scan. Jamie glanced at the rearview mirror.

"Tier one. Reinforced limbs, abnormal hair growth, mild reversion."

Carter slid the sniper rifle over. Ezra caught it, opened the sunroof, and stood. Jamie bent down and grabbed his ankle to keep him steady.

Shots rang out. The bear howled and kept coming.

It charged straight toward us, then slammed into the bus behind us. The survivors inside screamed. The impact sent the bus into the guardrail with a horrible screech. It took the driver a few seconds to wrestle it back into the lane.

Ezra fired three rounds into the bear. It dropped.

"Damn. Good thing it was only tier one. If it'd been tier three, we'd have lost the whole convoy."

"Even bears are hunting people now," Hank said, his eyes still on the road.

Jamie took back the tablet and logged what they'd seen. "This is just the start. Give it two months and squirrels'll be snatching kids."

That took a while to sink in. Carter sat quietly next to me. The others had called out the bear's tier like they were talking about the weather.

"Storm in ten minutes, according to the wristband. We need shelter."

Carter checked his wrist. The other three did as he said without question.

Eight minutes later, we pulled up at a cannery. Hank and the others got out to clear the Zs.

Carter settled me in the back seat. "It's dangerous out there at night. Don't wander off, understand? One bite from a mutant and you're done, little Z."

He sounded like he was talking to a kindergartner. I was so embarrassed I wanted to sink under the seat. I couldn't make a sound. All I could do was watch him get out.

The door shut. Outside, survivors shouted, their voices breaking.

I couldn't move my face. My eyes were the only things that still worked.

Ten minutes later, Carter yanked the door open and reached for me. He caught my cloudy gray eyes darting around, taking everything in. He paused, then scooped me up.

"Those eyes don't miss much. We'll get Dr. Vance to take a look at you. Who knows? You might be a kind of mutation we've never seen."

As he lifted me, I put my arms around his neck. It beat being slung over his shoulder. I held on and didn't let go.

They'd cleared the place. Zs lay on the ground, with dried pools of blood here and there. A little work and the rest of the place would be usable.

Across the site, Hank was organizing the survivors. He picked out a few who could cook and got them started on the food.

"Cap, there's a bunch of canned goods in the warehouse back there. None of it's contaminated. Should we call HQ to send a crew to haul it out?"

Ezra had just finished his sweep. When he saw Carter holding me, he came closer and lowered his voice.

"We get first pick of the supplies on this mission," he said. "But there's only so much room on our storage cards. All four together give us less than five hundred cubic feet. We can't take much."