Chapter 8: Sibling reunion

Ada's POV

I fixed my eyes on that man and paid no attention to the shouting and shoving in front of the car.

His body kept twitching in that strange, unbroken rhythm. His spine bent to an angle no normal person could achieve, his head lolling uncontrollably to one side. His gums were splitting open, sharp teeth pushing out through the side of his lips, and under the headlights his skin was turning a dull gray-blue.

I watched him turn, completely, into a zombie.

The scene was far too familiar to me. I let out a heavy sigh. I couldn't even muster a shred of panic. "Leo," I said, "seatbelt."

My foot hit the gas, and at that exact moment, all hell broke loose in the crowd blocking the car. One of them had been pounding on my window; the next second, the infected had its teeth in his throat.

Bright red blood sprayed across the neighbors beside him. The crowd went quiet for a few seconds before it registered. Then they were screaming and scattering in every direction, leaving only the freshly turned zombie and the man being torn apart.

I took the gap the scattering crowd left me and drove out. The engine noise caught the zombie's attention. It scrambled up off the body, no longer recognizable as a man and charged at us in that twisted posture.

"Holy shit—" Leo swore beside me, his voice cracking.

I pushed the car to top speed. The thing slammed into us and was thrown hard into the guardrail. By the time it got back on its feet, we had already left it behind.

As we cleared the apartment block, I could still see it in the rearview mirror, half a length of bloody intestine hanging from its fangs.

Leo had a death grip on his seatbelt, his knuckles white with fear.

"That's the zombie you were talking about?" His voice was shaking. A thin sheen of sweat had broken out across his forehead. "So they actually exist. That's — that's terrifying."

"Just like in the movies. Zombies are extremely sensitive to sound and smell. When we retrofit the shelter, soundproofing has to be priority one. Otherwise, anything we do inside could draw them in — or draw in people who mean us harm," I explained.

Leo didn't answer. He still hadn't come back from the shock.

My own emotions barely moved. I'd long since lost count of how many times I'd fought my way out of a horde in my last life. So many that a freshly turned zombie no longer made my pulse jump.

It was almost 11:40 p.m. when we reached Sea-Tac. Ray was standing near the exit with his suitcase. He spotted the familiar plate and waved us down.

Looking at that travel-worn face, the tears welled up again.

In my last life, the last time I heard Ray's voice was over the phone — him calling my name in broken fragments, until gunfire and the hissing of the dead swallowed it whole. I got out of the car, and strode over to pull him into a hug, burying my wet cheek in his coat.

"Don't be scared," he said, patting my back, his voice low and steady. "Big brother's back. I've got you."

I thought to myself: You don't know what I've been through. You don't know where I had to crawl back from. But thank God I'm back and you're all still alive.

With Ray's luggage loaded, I drove us toward the estate. On the way I gave them a rough explanation about the house. Ray found it odd that I'd bought an estate of all things, but he didn't object.

As the car moved into the suburbs, the two-story house with its white exterior walls came into view in the distance.

I'd asked Robert to leave me the spare key before. And now it's solved our immediate problem. I pulled slowly into the yard. Ray and Leo looked around and nodded in approval.

"Where's that bastard Frank?" Ray's expression suddenly turned serious.

"I kicked him. The cops came and took him away. Breaking and entering, plus obstructing law enforcement — that's enough to keep him locked up for half a month."

Leo gave me a thumbs-up. "Nice work. Still, half a month is light for him. Frank is a madman with no bottom line. Once he's out, he'll do everything he can to find out where you moved. We can't let our guard down."

"Relax. I already thought of that," I said. "That's why I haven't told anyone this address except you two. He can ask every single person in that apartment building and he won't get a thing."

In my last life I'd paid dearly for trusting the wrong people. Now I put a lot more into covering my tracks — I wasn't about to leave myself problems down the road.

A flicker of self-blame crossed Ray's eyes. "This is on me. I didn't protect you. The old you wouldn't have thought this far ahead."

Warmth spread through my chest. I took their hands and walked them into the house.

The previous owner had kept the place in good shape, probably because he still came back to stay now and then. The power and water were still on.

Leo went to the kitchen to boil water. Ray and I sat down on the sofa. Right there in front of him, I stepped into my space and out again. Just like a disappearing act, just for him. Then I laid everything out. Ray sank into thought and didn't come back to himself for a long time.

He raised his head. His gaze moved back and forth between me and Leo, and slowly hardened with resolve. "I believe you."

Leo and I let out a breath at the same time — though we'd expected it. In this world, Ray was always the one who trusted us the most.

I pulled out paper and a pen and set them on the table. "All right. Let's talk about the survival plan now."