Dead At Last

“Us? Why?” Brice asked.

  “Ask Tres here, he’s the key to it all.”

  “What?”

  Brice looked over at Tres and gave him a look. Tres sighed.

  “Bill and Nancy used to be my parents.”

  A pin could drop, a tree could fall, but no one would have heard it. Even the gentle wind had quit blowing.

  “You see, my dad is retired from some branch of the military I never could remember, not the normal stuff, and my mom was a virologist at U of M. It’s why we lived in the city, so she could be close to the university. But what do you mean the key?”

  “Tres was always a part of their plan when they were turned. Brice, you were a friend, and once saved Bill over in Kuwait during an artillery exchange and in turn you are friends with Stephen. They want you guys gone so they can be a happy family again and the three of you can join the Vampire Lords in their so called world conquest. Just the fact that I failed will make them chain my wife to the front gates. I’ve screwed everything up. ”

  “What was the plan exactly?”

  “Chase the swarm into you, grab Tres and get back to Bill & Nancy.”

  “And what if he was bitten?”

  “Well, I have this.. He bent down and pulled a capped syringe out of one shoe side and a capped needle out of the other.

  “This is the serum. Perfected, tested and 100% foolproof.”

  “Why would they make something like this” Mariah asked.

  “Imagine a renewable food source that heals as fast as you eat it, and is immune to the plague they created by mistake.”

  “You mean the deadheads and ghouls?” I asked

  “Yeah.. but guys, my wife, you have to help me, you have..”

  “Jake, just two questions for you. You ready?” Jake Nodded. “Do you want your wife back, and do you want payback?”

  The way he said yes will never pass my lips, because dial soap tastes horrible, but it was a very big yes.

  “Then I think before we do any more hunts for deadheads we go find Bones.”

  “And after that?”

  “We go to the armory.”