Page 28 of Demon Shock

What if what I just saw had happened to Mom, Pops, and Kylie? What if I found them in the house like that?

Bram’s assurance that I could change my mind made more sense. Would I be able to deal with seeing my family like that? Worse, would I be able to deal with what would need to be done? The men had stressed several times how dangerous the infected still were…how there were still so many left.

The rules Zach had already shared, like the ways to kill an infected, ran through my mind.

“Gyrik removed her head, didn’t he?” My words were barely audible over the hum of the engine, but Zach heard.

“Yeah. He has to. Leaving them as they are means they’ll be there to hurt the humans that are still alive.”

I nodded and leaned my head back against the seat.

“You should keep your eyes closed.”

“I will, but we both know I’ll need to face this eventually.”

“Aren’t you already? Give yourself time to process what you’ve seen before you add anything more. And there will be more. A lot more. But like I said before, at least, these ones are slower and less scary than what was out there before. Seriously, I don’t understand how you made it without anything finding you until now.”

“Same.”

I’d gotten so lucky. Hopefully, that luck would last a little longer, and I’d find my family holed up and safe. Yet, a thread of doubt remained. My family had known where I was. If they’d had the chance, wouldn’t they have tried driving to the cabin to get me, too?

“If you’re not busy dodging dead people, can I ask questions?”

“No dodging. Gyrik is keeping them all away. It’s easier to clean him than the vehicles. What’s your question?”

The image Zach had just painted muted me for an extra few seconds.

“How fast did everything happen? From the time people started being affected to the time the evacuations started?”

“Hours. The bombings happened within days. Everything was chaos. I’m glad you missed it. I still have nightmares about those first few days.” He made a derisive sound. “The first few weeks, really. We got smarter. But so did they.”

“Do you have any family left?”

“I do. My mom and my sister. My dad’s gone.”

“I’m sorry.”

Pete, who was sleeping in my lap, made an inquisitive sound and started purring as I petted him.

“It is what it is,” Zach said. “It’s better to accept the circumstances than live in denial. Better chance of survival, you know?”

I nodded and opened my eyes, staring at the cab’s ceiling for a moment before turning my head and looking out the window. We were passing through a residential area. Several of the infected people were trying to reach us, but they moved like the first woman had—as if their limbs weren’t cooperating with them.

It gave Gyrik time to run to them, one by one. I didn’t watch what he was doing, but I glanced behind us and saw how he was throwing the bodies into little piles. My stomach didn’t turn. I didn’t know why not. It should have.

“Why does he pile them like that?”

“Several reasons that you might find a little nauseating.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“Well, the body piles used to deter other infected from wandering too close to the area. Those were the smarter ones. We’re not sure how smart these ones will get, so the piles are still a warning. But they’ll also keep the area neater. There’s nothing we can do about the dead right now with the ground frozen, but the scientists stressed how other kinds of sicknesses might become a problem if dead people are just left everywhere.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

“The day we figured out how to stop the smart ones, they’d surround our community. Hundreds of thousands of infected. More than we could have hoped to kill or keep out once they gathered. They fell where they stood. We’re talking miles of dead bodies around the communities.

“It took days to pick them all up and haul them away. Thankfully, it was still cold enough then, or it would have been really bad. We found places to move them to. Some were burned. Some were buried. There were too many to stick to just one method. Hopefully, once the warm weather comes, we won’t have any problems.”

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