“I know.” Amanda had been mentally working on this minor setback. “But I have an idea.”
“An idea, huh? Do I want to hear it?”
“Duh. Of course you do.”
“You’re going to have to dry dishes if you’re going to take up space in Nonna’s kitchen.”
“Okay.” Amanda grabbed a towel from a drawer and began drying silverware. “The way I figure it, there’s eventually going to be another mission to Bastopol. When that happens, I just have to convince them to make a detour to the science lab at the high school. Remember all those great microscopes Mr. Dillon got last year?”
“You’re crazy.” Stephenson heaved the huge pot out of the sink and plunked it down on the counter. “First of all, you have no idea when anyone is going back to Bastopol. Second of all, no one is going to risk their life to get you a microscope.”
“Mr. Dillon’s microscopes were top of line. He wrote a grant to get them.”
“The science lab is probably a pile of dust,” Stephenson said. “In case you forgot, Leo and the others blew up half the high school.”
“Their attack was by the football field. The science lab is on the other side of the school.”
“Why get zombie samples now anyway? Shouldn’t you wait until you actually have a microscope? I mean, where do you plan to store it?”
“In the freezer.”
“You think Nonna is going to let you store a piece of zombie in her freezer?” Stephenson’s eyebrows nearly climbed off his forehead. “Good luck with that.”
Amanda opened her mouth to retort, but Nonna returned from the bathroom. Amanda continued to dry dishes so she wouldn’t look suspicious.
“You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow.” Nonna gave Amanda an affectionate pat on the cheek. “You should get some sleep. Stephenson and I will finish up.”
“That’s okay, I can help.” Amanda didn’t really want to go to bed. She and Cassie shared a bunk. Climbing into bed would be a reminder that her friend was out there on a dangerous mission, risking her life for their country.
16
Mrs. Fink
“Amanda.” Lena touched her on the arm. “It’s time to go. Meet you outside. Make sure you grab a machine gun.” She gave Amanda a kind smile before heading out the door.
Amanda patted her back pocket to make sure the Ziploc was still there. The plastic crinkled under her fingers. She paused on her way outside, surveying the rack of various weapons just inside the door.
It was still hard to reconcile herself to lugging around a machine gun. She felt like an imposter. Lena and the others were badasses. She was just a nerdy girl who sucked at gym class and geeked out in biology class.
She tried to feel like she belonged to this group of guerrilla soldiers who had made it their mission to fight the zombies and Russian invaders. Cassie had proven chess nerds could be a part of this group.
For starters, she had managed to snag Leo Cecchino. Amanda found that fact even more startling than the fact they both carried around machine guns. Chess nerds weren’t supposed to nab former high-school quarterbacks. No one wrote love stories about that.
Amanda was a closet expert when it came to love stories. She used to steal romance books from her mom’s pile and read them at night after her parents went to bed. Leo might look like the guys on the cover of those books, but there were no women in those pages who were like Cassie.
Which was why her friend inspired her so much. If Cassie could ride off on a mission with her hunky boyfriend, it meant Amanda’s preconceived reality could be altered. It meant she, Amanda Nielson, could be a guerilla. It meant she could wield a gun and fight for her country.
It also meant she could figure out a way to get a tissue sample from a zombie. Preferably, from a regular zombie and a mutant.
She just had to get Dal and Lena to buy off on the idea.
Grabbing a machine gun, she slung it around her shoulder before grabbing an extra magazine. Then she headed outside to where Dal and Lena waited for her in the broadcast truck.
The old brown pick-up had belonged to Mr. Cecchino. Stephenson had helped them rig the broadcasting antenna and the transmitter to the engine. Amanda liked to think of it as a mobile, guerrilla news station.
Lena and Dal, always together, sat in the cab. It would have been a tight fit for all three of them with the transmitter, especially with Amanda coming from a big-boned family. She climbed into the back, like she always did when she went out with them.
“Amanda.” Stephenson waved at her from the porch. “Be safe.” He gave her a meaningful look as Nonna came out to stand beside him. The two of them waved goodbye as Dal drove away.
“Where are we headed to today?” Amanda asked through the open cab window.
Lena held up a map. “We’re heading northeast.” She pointed to a spot on the map. “There’s a good peak about fifteen miles from the cabin.”
“Do you know the owner of the land?” On one of their missions, they’d been forced to face off with a zombified land owner.
“It’s the boundary of Armstrong Woods.”
Amanda frowned in concern. “We’re not going to be close to any of the campgrounds, are we?” Most of the zombies from the first wave of the invasion had died off by now, but there were still mutants out there.
“We’ll be miles from the nearest campground,” Dal replied.
Amanda took the map Lena held out to her, absorbing the tight row of topographic lines between them and their destination. They were in for a long ride.
Dal and Lena always picked remote locations for the broadcasts; there were often no legitimate roads, which meant the old truck had to roll along at a very sedate pace if they didn’t want to break an axel.
That was okay. Amanda didn’t
