Z-Minus (Book 4) by Perrin Briar Page B

conscious.
    “Lucy,” Daoud said. “Are you-?”
    “I’m fine,” Lucy said. “I’m just weak, that’s all.”
    She needed to get to the rendezvous as soon as possible.
    “Is your radio working?” Mark said to Eddie.
    “Sure,” Eddie said. “Don’t think you can wrangle yourself out of this one. I can’t believe I got you with the same trick you pulled on me.”
    “Where’s your radio?” Mark said.
    Eddie frowned, annoyed Mark wasn’t rising to the bait.
    “Why haven’t you reported in?” Mark said.
    “The last thing Major Edwards said was to hold positions until further word came,” Eddie said. “After that there was a bunch of hissing and screaming on the other end of the line.”
    “Screaming?” Mark said.
    “Yeah,” Eddie said. “I knew they were going all-out on this one, but even I was amazed at the quality. Do you reckon they got some Hollywood studio to work on it?”
    Mark grabbed the radio.
    “Come in, over,” he said. “Mark Edwards reporting in, over.”
    Static answered.
    “Come in, over,” Mark said. “Come in.”
    “They’re not going to respond to you,” Eddie said. “They’ll think it’s some kind of ploy.”
    Eddie took the radio.
    “This is Santos, over,” he said into the handset.
    Static answered him.
    “Santos, over,” he said.
    More static.
    “Listen, the game’s over,” Eddie said. “I’ve captured Mark and his team. Single handedly, I might add.”
    Hissing answered him again. He repeated the message.
    “They’re not going to answer you,” John said. “There’s no one there.”
    “Didn’t you hear explosions earlier?” Mark said. “The shooting?”
    “Yeah,” Eddie said, beginning to frown now. “But that was all just part of the fun. Wasn’t it?”
    The question hung over them, heavy and pregnant.
    “Get in the jeep,” Mark said. “We’re going for a ride.”
    “It’s my jeep,” Eddie said. “I’ll say what we’re going to do.”
    He eyed Mark and the others.
    “Get in,” he said. “We’re going for a ride.”

Z-MINUS: 4 hours 32 minutes
     
    The jeep ate the road hungrily, the forest blending into a mirage of greens and yellows. It was beginning to turn dark, twilight.
    Every few minutes, Mark peered into the foliage and found a hungry face looking back at him, mouth falling open into a growl, eyes red and shining. Several even looked like Tabitha, something clutched to her chest, dirty and smeared with blood. Others had the appearance of Roach. Mark decided to keep his attention on the road.
    Eddie had been spooked by the team’s silence, every couple of minutes turning to them, but leaving the burning questions on his lips unanswered. His foot stayed firmly planted to the floor.
    Up ahead, a figure drifted from the foliage and into the road, reaching out with clawed hands and an angry expression. Eddie eased up off the accelerator to avoid them.
    “Don’t stop,” Mark said.
    Eddie made no smart-ass comment this time, and did as he was told. More bodies rushed past, catching snapshots of the angry hungry faces of something that was once human. Crusted blood around their eyes, noses and mouths.
    “What the hell are these things?” Eddie said.
    “Infected,” Mark said.
    “Real infected?” Eddie said.
    Mark nodded.
    “Fuck,” Eddie said.
    The jeep had no doors, only a front windscreen. Mark suddenly felt very exposed, to the elements and the creatures that edged closer and closer to the center of the road.
    The jeep was noisy. It garnered the attention of every monstrous entity in the vicinity. Soon there were thick bunches that clogged up their path. Eddie tugged on the wheel to avoid them, but soon that wasn’t possible. There was just too many of them.
    “Go through them,” Mark said, surprised at the calmness of his voice.
    “Are you crazy?” Eddie said. “I can’t do that! They’re people!”
    “They were people,” Mark said. “Not anymore.”
    Eddie shook his head. He would either need to plow