The Living Dead Boy (The Living Dead Boy #1)(39)

Silence filled the car.

“I can’t believe Sam is dead,” Troy whispered. “And it’s that stupid Chad’s fault.”

“I knew he was bad news,” Danny grunted.

Dulce nodded vehemently. “Sí!”

“I’ll get my spear and do it,” Josh decided. “The adult will be harder to kill. We’ll need to trip him and get him on the ground fast.”

“We should just leave,” Danny suggested.

“We need supplies,” Corina said in a firm tone. “We’ll get Chad to open the door and get what we need.”

“You really think he’ll open the door?” Troy stared at her in disbelief.

“For me, yes. He wants me to be his girlfriend,” Corina replied.

Troy shook his head. “Like you’d be interested. He’s so mean.”

“That’s his sick way of flirting. You know how some boys hit the girls they like and people act like it’s okay?”

The boys nodded.

Josh had personally never understood that approach. It seemed wrong to hurt someone you liked.

“Well, it’s not okay. It sucks, but it has happened enough to me to know that’s what he’s doing. By being mean to Sam and the rest of you he thinks he looks tough and manly in my eyes. He’s wrong. It doesn’t. It makes me angry and sad. It shows that he thinks being mean is okay when you like someone. My mom dated a guy after my parent’s divorced. He said nasty things to her, and hit her a few times. I didn’t know about the hitting, but I heard him say mean stuff. Anyway, the last time he hit her was in front of me. She broke up with him because she didn’t want me to think that it’s okay for a man to hit me.” Corina wiped tears from her eyes. “That’s why she liked Brad so much. He was nice.”

“That sucks in so many ways,” Danny said.

“She sounds like a good mom,” Troy added.

Corina nodded, tears in her eyes. “She was a good mom. She taught me to be strong. Since it’s kinda my fault Sam is dead, I’ll put Sam’s zombie down.”

“It’s not your fault!” Troy protested.

“Chad was mean to him to try to impress me, and he pushed Sam too far. I can’t help but feel a little guilty, okay?”

Josh understood too well how she felt. “I get it.”

Corina drew in a deep breath, and straightened her glasses. Exhaling, she squared her shoulders. “Just help me do it, okay?”

Josh nodded. “Okay.”

“But first, we need to get out of this gross car,” Danny said.

“I’ll take lead.” Taking a deep breath, Josh slid into the front seat and the glass and ice crunched under his sneakers. He cautiously peered through the side window to see the bloody pulpy mess left by the storm. Holding the socket wrench tight in one hand, he pushed the door open.

Only one zombie sprawled on the ground was slightly moving. Stepping out, Josh hopped over the zombie bodies to where he’d dropped his spear and picked it up. The anxious faces of his friends watched through the shattered windows of the car. Gritting his teeth, he stabbed the end of the spear through the battered head of the zombie. It finally stopped moving.

“Okay. That’s what we do,” Danny said.

His friends joined him and they quickly made sure that the mashed zombies would never get back up.

“Now for the last zombie and Sam,” Corina said miserably.

Josh waved his friends closer, and they formed a huddle around him. “Okay, we need to keep quiet as possible. If there are any more zombies in the area, we don’t want to let them know we’re here. We need to get supplies, and see if there’s a working car around here.”

“What’s the plan for Sam?” Troy asked.

Josh looked toward the garage and the area around it. “Uh, see that tire. We need to drag it in front of the door, then have someone lure the zombie out. They’re not very smart. It should trip over the tire. Once on the ground, we pulverize its head.”

“And Sam?” Corina sniffled and blinked the tears away.

“He’ll probably do the same thing. Trip and...” Josh’s voiced faded away.

Anger flared in Troy’s eyes. “I want to punch Chad in the balls.”

“We all do,” Danny assured Troy.

“Okay. Let’s do this.” Josh gripped his bloody spear and resolutely walked along the path through the old cars to the garage.

The other kids were very quiet, to the point he checked to see if they were following. All wore somber expressions, and he understood too well how they were feeling. Sam had been one of their own. It wouldn’t be easy to kill the undead version of him. Anger against Chad burned in Josh’s gut.

The image of the zombie version of his mother after she’d changed flitted through his mind, and stilled his footsteps.

“Josh?” Corina laid her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t freeze. You can’t be afraid.”

Turning his head, he gazed into her worried face. “I know what I’m afraid of now. Why I froze before.”

“Why?” she asked.

“I don’t want to kill my family and friends when they turn zombie. Escaping, staying alive, means that it could happen.”

He was trembling, but couldn’t stop. He hadn’t been able to kill his mom, but he had killed Arturo. At the truck stop, he had relived the moment when he’d faced his undead mother and decided to live. And that was what scared him so much. Living meant enduring terrible things.