The Zombie Chronicles - Book 2 (Apocalypse Infection Unleashed Series) by Chrissy Peebles Page A

swallowed a few white pills. “I’ll be fine.”
    “ Maybe you should go lie down in a dark room. That’s what I do when I—”
    Her eyes bulged. “I said I’ll be fine!” she snapped.
    “ Sorry.”
    “ Just shut up, okay? Be happy you’re healthy, Dean, and that you don’t have a throbbing headache like me. You easily pass the Kingsville inspection. Here!” She threw an orange paper with a black eagle stamp on it. “Stay out of trouble. Kingsville has a very strict policy and doesn’t tolerate criminal activity of any sort.”
    “ I swear we’re not troublemakers, ma’am.”
    “ I hope so…for your own sake,” she added in an ominous tone. “You can go now.”
    “ Thank you,” I said, leaving the room, following the hallway back to the waiting room.
    Nick motioned me over. “Hey, we’ve got a big problem,” he whispered in my ear.
    “ What?” I asked.
    “ They somehow know we had a sixth person in our party. The soldiers musta called over here with the list of names they jotted down. They wanna see Val next.”
    “ Crap!” I said. “What’re we gonna do?”
    The door creaked open, and Jackie shot me a smile as an elderly nurse led her back to the waiting room where we were. That nurse looked a whole lot nicer than the crank I’d had.
    “ So did we all pass or what?” Jackie asked.
    “ They want Val,” Nick said under his breath.
    I smiled. “But I have a brilliant idea.”
    “ What?” Lucas asked, walking over.
    “ Jackie can be Val.” I motioned Jackie to the bathroom. “Change up your hair.”
    “ I like that!” Nick handed her a handkerchief from his pocket. “Pull your hair back and make sure you see the other nurse, the one who didn’t examine you.”
    “ That’ll be the crank I just had,” I said. “She says she has a migraine, but she’s a real headache herself.”
    She smiled. “Not a problem.”
    I bit my lip hard, wondering whether it was going to work or not.
    Jackie came out with a bandana over her head, but it was the older nurse who came out and called Val’s name. We all exchanged shocked, panicked looks, certain that there was no way Jackie would be able to trick the nurse who’d just examined her.
    “ Oh my gosh!” Claire said. “Nurse! Nurse! Come here!” She pointed to a colorful fish swimming around in the reef.
    The nurse rushed over. “What?”
    “ You’ve got yellow-tailed damsels in here. Why?”
    “ Somebody donated them yesterday,” she said. “I love their vivid blue bodies and vibrant yellow tails. Aren’t they spectacular?”
    “ For about five more minutes,” Claire said. “Your volitan lionfish will eat them in a heartbeat. You’ve got to get the yellow-tailed damsels out of there…quick!”
    The nurse gasped. “Leo will eat them?”
    “ You bet! He’s a carnivore.”
    “ You must be right,” the nurse said, gazing into the tank. “We’re missing about two or three of them already.”
    “ I’ve had fish all my life,” Claire said. “Those two breeds are incompatible.”
    The door creaked open, and the cranky nurse peeked her head out. “Where’s the last patient?”
    “ You’ll have to examine her,” the old nurse said. “I have to save these fish! Leo’s snacking on them, eating his own kind like one of those darn zombies!”
    Jackie slipped over to the door and hurried in before the older nurse realized what was going on. Claire helped the nurse scoop out the blue fish and place them in a different tank with less threatening neighbors. The nurse seemed impressed when Claire told her she and Jackie had a twenty-five-gallon reef tank back in New York City. The two of them laughed and chatted, and I knew Claire had won her over with her sweet charm and all that fish talk. I was impressed with all the tips she gave the nurse for taking care of a large aquarium. She really knew her stuff about fish.
    I paced the floor for the next twenty minutes, and finally, Jackie came out holding her orange slip.
    “