Waking Up Dead

Sebastian shot her a look and shrugged. “Whoever comes with me handles that, I guess. I haven’t ever. That’s your job.”

“I think one is most definitely in order. That place is huge and they could be hiding.”

“No they don’t hide. Their intelligence may be increasing at an alarming rate, but I don’t think they’ve quite got the patience for that yet. Besides it’s all locked up.”

“Luke and I have seen some things. Including them disabling locks.”

Sebastian actually smiled, as if the idea pleased him. “Really? Well that is interesting. Almost as interesting as how the wakers got Sammy to do what they want—which I’ve yet to find out. Mack won’t let me speak with her.” He shook his head, clearly annoyed. “But actually, Jack, can I call you Jack? You haven’t seen anything yet.”

He pulled the car up in front of the building and made to get out, not even pausing to park properly. Jackson laid a hand on his arm to halt his progress. “How about you wait here while I check stuff out.”

“You don’t want me to come with?”

She nodded to the rifle in the foot well. “Can you actually use that?”

Sebastian shifted in his seat and scowled. “Sort of. I mean, I can if I need to. Just point and aim, right?”

That was hardly what she wanted to hear, and Jackson was seriously doubting the wisdom of her actions. Where the hell was Luke when she needed him? Luke… They’d only been apart for a few hours and already she missed him… She grimaced and gripped Mandy nice and tight before checking the Glock’s position—now fully loaded courtesy of Nancy—on her waistband. Now was not the time to go all Juliet.

“Wait here,” she told Sebastian. “Keep the gun aimed and ready. I’ll give you a shout when all is clear. Then you can open up for me and I’ll do a sweep inside. If I’m not back out in five minutes, leave.”

Sebastian paused for a moment before shaking his head. His hair sort of bounced as he did so. “No. I’m going to come with you. You might be startled by what you see and you’ll need me to explain so you don’t…upset things.”

“What’s in there for me to be startled about?” she asked, the curiosity burning.

“Best you see rather than me tell you.”

“Geez, come on then.”

Jackson led the way as they did a check around the outside perimeter of the area. Sebastian strode along and muttered to himself. She couldn’t help but compare him to Luke—who would be alert, treading with sure footsteps, probably planning how to get her out of harm’s way.

Once she was assured of the buildings zombie-freeness they went in through the small locked door by the parked car, Sebastian fumbling with the key and fumbling again as he relocked it behind him. The smell of lemons hit immediately and Jackson frowned. It wasn’t fresh, clean, zingy lemons, but ever so slightly rancid. She held a hand to her mouth as they moved inside and she wasn’t even sure what she expected to see, but wasn’t massively surprised to see the whole inner space had been opened up into one huge laboratory—all apart from one small room at the end. Sebastian was a doctor, so a lab was a given. Only thing she didn’t understand was why it was so far from camp.

“What gives with this place?” she asked. “Why isn’t it in camp? Surely that would be easier?

Sebastian smiled and gestured her forward. Skylights gave them plenty of light as they strode through the lab, though the metal bars spaced a half inch apart sort of sent it in shafts, giving the room a checkered look. “Easier in some ways,” he said. “But not in others. Come on.”

The smell got stronger as they made their way through the room, and Jackson exhaled on a whistle. “Why can I smell lemons? Old lemons?”

“Waker defense,” Sebastian replied. “Citrate interferes with their sense of smell. Or it used to. Doesn’t seem to work on the smarter ones anymore.”

“Yeah, we noticed something like that too,” Jackson said, her heart leaping at the first of what were sure to be many answers. “Do aftershaves have citrate in them?”

“Indeed they do.”

So that explained it all. Jackson wondered how people had known in the beginning, how Tye had known, and felt a pang. He would so have loved this setup. She could easily see him striding alongside next to Sebastian breathing it all in with a smirk and a swing of his ax.

“It’s in here that I need you for, Jack,” Sebastian said, picking a key from the bunch and pulling her thoughts from her lost friend. “Mostly you just stand guard and keep an eye on the situation. Plus, if any wakers should come here you’ll need to take care of them, though that’s never happened before, so I wouldn’t worry about that.”

Something in his tone alerted Jackson and she hefted Mandy into position, ready and waiting. A shaft of light glinted off the machete and Jackson frowned. The blade needed sharpening—soon.

“I don’t like surprises, Sebastian,” she said. “Like, really don’t.”

He laughed and tugged at his hair. “Jackson, that is a damn lie. I barely know you, but I know that much already. You thrive on surprises. You need the adrenaline. It’s part of who you are now. Admit it. You’re a bit excited to be here. I am too. It’s how we work.”

“No,” she began to say but paused when he gave her another laugh and pushed the door open.

Jackson didn’t know what was going to be inside but she knew it was going to be something she was not going to like. Damn it, Sebastian was right. It felt weird, it was weird, and she was almost… excited? Her heart was pumping hard and her hand was twitching on her blade.

They’d spent just a night in the camp. Only yesterday she’d escaped the zombie trap, and yet here she was, out and about, and it felt almost normal to her. An image of her nice, clean room came to her. She could be sleeping on that wonderful bed, sitting on the comfy couch, even showering, but none of that appealed as much as this. Doing something, contributing in a small way…being back in the thick of things, finding answers. It was what she’d come all this way for and yet…she couldn’t help wondering what the hell was wrong with her.

“You ready for this?” Sebastian asked and moved inside. Jackson followed, opening her mouth to ask what she was supposed to be ready for. But she never got the chance. The smell hit her instantly, making the rancid lemons seem almost sweet, and then the sounds. Both were horribly familiar and as Jackson moved forward, she gasped, because right there, strapped on the table in the very middle of the room, was something Jackson had hoped to see, but never expected in a million years, or two if she wanted to be accurate.

“Is that…?”

Sebastian smiled with obvious enthusiasm, rolled his sleeves up his arms, and grabbed a lab coat. “It is indeed. Jackson meet patient two hundred and three. Or as I like to call him, Two-h-ee.”

She stepped forward, halted, and then took a step more. Her heart was racing, and every cell in her body was tingling. It was unbelievable. Exciting. Amazing. Christ.

“You’re not fucking serious?” she gasped.

Sebastian glared at her tone, perhaps taking her words of surprise in completely the wrong way, but then Two-h-ee glared too, and he had no way to understand nuances. Two-he-ee…or as Jackson would call it, the fucking zombie.

Chapter Thirty

The camp was not that fucking big! Where the hell was she? Luke growled as he made his way across the courtyard for probably the hundredth time, wondering where the hell he could possibly check next. It was half past twelve, well past their agreed time to meet, and yet no one seemed to know where Jackson was, except for the fact that she was with Dr. Sebastian—the resident medical man and zombie expert. A few people thought Nancy might have more information. But Nancy was nowhere to be seen either.

Luke passed by one of the housing clusters—waved back absently to an elderly woman who was in one of the upstairs windows—and took a deep, trying-to-be-calming breath. If Jackson was late because she was busy working on something with the doctor, fine. It was inconsiderate of her, but he could suck it up if she was doing