“Oh, yes, I’m going to need this back. It will go nicely with the little note we’ll leave by your suicide note in the bathroom,” Harrison said as he yanked my arm up.

  The sparkling, two-carat diamond ring was a family heirloom. One he’d asked my father for so he could propose. The cheap bastard couldn’t buy his own.

  “It will look lovely on Lucy’s hand in a few months once the proper mourning period is over,” he said with a snicker.

  Even cheaper bastard couldn’t buy his little hussy a ring.

  He tugged on my finger, the ring not budging, getting stuck before my knuckles.

  Hell yes for all the sodium in those food truck tacos.

  He tried a few more times and then groaned, dropping my hand with a hard thud.

  “No matter. I can always come get it later.” He shook his head, wiping his glasses off on his shirt.

  “See you around, Maisie. Oh wait…no, I won’t,” he said as he laughed again.

  I stared up at the ceiling, unable to move as the crypt doors closed and the room darkened while I waited for death to finally come.

  Chapter Four

  I waited for death.

  For what I assumed would be nothingness.

  Or the paralysis to wear off and just feel pain.

  But none of that came.

  Instead, adrenaline coursed through me as the feeling came back first to my toes, then surged up my body like a jolt of electricity.

  Muscles that I’d studied but didn’t know I had soared to life, tightening and strengthening as I slowly sat up.

  I stared at my hands.

  They still looked like my hands.

  But they felt as if one million tiny pinpricks were poking through my skin, making me feel every nerve ending.

  “What the hell is this?” I muttered, my mouth still dry like it was filled with cotton.

  But I could talk.

  No longer paralyzed as I touched each fingertip to my palm and wiggled my toes.

  “How is this even possible?” I managed to croak, my vocal cords now loosening.

  I patted down my chest and legs, grasping at my pocket where I kept my cell phone. It was still there and, in addition, charged.

  Really, Harrison? Going to try and kill me and forget to take my cell phone?

  Sloppy.

  Though he was always like that.

  He never looked at the details.

  For a scientist, he sure was terrible at finding the minor things.

  And my body was no exception to that.

  Ugh.

  And I was married to that man having an affair!

  A man who tried to kill me.

  I needed to stop him.

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed the number of the one person I knew I could trust.

  Kade picked up on the first ring.

  “Hey, dinner so bad that you need someone to drive you to the ER?” he asked with a laugh.

  “Not the ER, but to the lab,” I said with a groan as I got to my feet.

  Usually, it was a little harder to get up, age and bones popping.

  But this time, I seemed to spring right up. My muscles surging. Like I could get right up and run a marathon.

  Not that I’d ever actually run one or did anything more than a few laps on the treadmill at work.

  “Everything okay? Is the injection site bothering you?” he asked, his voice brimming with concern. “I’m on my way to your house now, okay?”

  “It’s not the injection site, and I’m not at the house. You need to come to the cemetery. The one where my family’s crypt is. Actually, right at the crypt.”

  I looked around the cement structure.

  My grandparents and their grandparents and even their grandparents were buried in these walls.

  The family crest was right at the back wall with the griffin holding onto a rose and roaring.

  Two blades crossed over the crest, swords rumored to have been used back in the crusades.

  I’d always been mesmerized and freaked out by the crypt.

  But now, there was something different about it, as if my body was drawing power from it, which my scientific brain couldn’t wrap my head around.

  “The crypt? Why the hell are you there? His food really so bad you thought you were going to die?” Kade said. He even laughed, but there was still an edge to his voice.

  “Just get here, and I’ll explain everything as we head to the lab,” I said.

  “Okay, Maisie. I’ll be right there. Be careful, okay?”

  “I will, Kade. See you soon.”

  I hung up, sliding my phone back into my pocket.

  A low rumble shook the crypt’s walls, a bit of rock dust floating in the air.

  “Is that thunder? There wasn’t any chance of storms tonight,” I mumbled to myself, looking around the room.

  Of course, there weren’t any windows, so it’s not like I could actually see outside if I wanted to.

  My body wanted to run. To soar.

  As if I could just jump up and push through the roof and fly high into the night sky.

  But I crept slowly, making sure the feeling had come back to each part of my body, as I went to the large metal doors.

  The groaning was louder, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

  But it wasn’t a thunder rumble.

  No, this was the groan of someone in distress.

  Pushing the doors open, I blinked hard. My eyes adjusted to the dark as I peered into the cemetery.

  There was a large group of individuals slowly walking toward me.

  I thought they’d be running if they were coming after me.

  But there was something just as menacing. Those guttural moans roared deep from their chests, even if their feet were dragging.

  “Oh hell no, I survived death once. I’m not about to get taken out by whatever this is!”

  I ran back into the crypt and pulled the swords from the wall.

  They were a little rusty but still sharp enough to at least scare off whoever was coming.

  Thank you, Dad, for forcing me to take all those years of fencing even when I complained.

  With both swords held at the ready, I crept back toward the door, nudging the enormous steel monoliths open.

  The figures were only a few yards away now, still creeping just as slow as ever, dragging their large feet.

  They weren’t exactly human, but not, not human.

  At least half a dozen of them, all in-hospital scrubs hanging off their thin frames.

  Their thin, yellowing frames.

  Their skin was sallow, jaundiced, with their eyes sunken in and the hair left on their head just falling in wispy strands. I couldn’t tell if they were male or female or even their ages.

  “What the hell is this?” I muttered to myself, holding one sword with my right hand at the ready and letting the other hang at my side.

  I wasn’t great at fighting with two weapons, but I knew I might need the second one, especially with six pairs of glowing eyes approaching me.

  “What do you want?” I yelled, hoping they’d be able to speak.

  They just continued shuffling forward, still letting out those guttural moans.

  “Don’t come any closer! I’m armed, and yes, I know how to use these swords!” I called, waving both swords across me, hoping they’d get the hint.

  It had been years since I actually held a sword, and usually, it was an epee in the fencing club.

  Even then, I was terrible and limp wristed.

  But now, my wrists were stronger. My entire arm was stronger as I whipped the weapons around like they were nothing, and my body knew exactly how to twist the old pieces.

  Either the creatures weren’t listening or didn’t care to listen, now within only a few feet of the crypt.

  I slid my left sword through my belt loop and held the one in my right hand at the ready.

  “I’m warning you,” I yelled, narrowing my eyes, hoping it was my best warrior face.

  I should have been scared and shaking in my tennis shoes.

  But the new power coursing through me had sent an electric charge through me. One that was ready to burst.

  The creatures didn’t stop moving.

  Hell, I couldn’t even tell if they were human or some sort of hybrid.

  Though that didn’t make sense.

  How could they not be human if they walked on two legs and dressed in clothing? Humans were the only mammals that did both of those things.

  But with their hollow eyes and that low moan, they seemed anything but.

  “Look, I have a sword, and I don’t want to have to hurt any of you with it, but you need to back off. I’m a scientist, and I live nearby if you need some help,” I yelled again.

  Their shuffling grew louder as they crested over the gravel. I could smell the rotting flesh wafting off them as they drew near.

  The closer they got, the more the pungent smell wrinkled my nose, and I had to cover my face with my free arm so I wouldn’t cough or vomit from the stench.

  “Don’t move another muscle,” I yelled, thrusting my sword out toward the leading man.

  Or I think it was a man in his sagging blue scrubs and tiny wisps of hair hanging off his yellow skull.

  But whatever it was didn’t listen, shuffling right toward my sword, the sound slicing the air as the tip broke his sallow skin.

  He groaned, not even stepping back or trying to remove the sword as he looked down at the steel piercing his skin.

  “What the hell?” I whispered.

  A new sound came from down the road.

  This one of gravel crunching and the roar of an engine.

  Kade!

  If I could last long enough to have him rescue me, I just had to get through whatever these were.

  I pulled my sword back, ready for the splay of red blood.

  But nothing escaped the sallow skin.

  Or slowed down the horde.

  I juked to the left, slicing in the air as I jumped off the front steps, crashing hard to the gravel ground.

  Adrenaline coursed through me as I held my sword high, ready if they came any closer.

  “See? I know how to use this, so just back off,” I called.

  They didn’t listen. Their glowing eyes focused on me as they kept shuffling toward me.

  I kept my eyes facing them, slicing in the air as I backed up in the direction of the road, hoping Kade was close.

  The lead creature shuffled closer as if he had a boost of energy, his ashy arms in the air like he was charging.

  “Back off!” I yelled, slicing my sword down to make contact with his wrists.

  Instead of just cutting, his hands were utterly dismembered from his body, still wiggling as they fell.

  “Eh,” the creature groaned, only briefly glancing at his now missing limbs but still kept moving to me.

  “What the hell?”

  He wasn’t even bleeding. There were just yellowing stumps where his hands had once been.

  The hands that were now crawling toward me faster than the creatures shuffled.

  I twirled my sword and pierced each hand, cutting off the fingertips as they wiggled like bugs stuck on their back.

  “This can’t be happening,” I muttered as I picked up my pace, running backward so I could keep the creatures in my sight.

  Creatures?

  Were they even that?

  They were almost like…

  Zombies.

  But zombies weren’t real.

  There weren’t undead beings like that.

  But then what was I?

  I was just dead, paralyzed, and now I’d risen too.

  Dammit, I needed Kade.

  Luckily I saw the headlights of his truck a few rows from where I was.

  I glanced back at the zombies.

  They were still shuffling but at a snail’s pace.

  “Okay, I can do this,” I said with a sigh and shoved the other sword into my belt loops.

  Then I used my arms to pump against my sides as I zigged and zagged through the tombstones as I ran toward Kade’s truck.

  I glanced over my shoulder every few steps.

  The zombies were still coming.

  They were moving slowly, but they weren’t stopping.

  I should have collected a sample of them to test in the lab, but I was more worried about my own survival.

  I squinted, adjusting to the bright lights and making out Kade’s license plate and his Barnes Pharmaceuticals license plate cover.

  Something slithered next to my shoe, and I glanced down.

  The zombie’s finger was snailing right beside me, aiming right for my toes.

  I squealed as I jumped, higher than I had ever soared before.

  My feet landed perfectly on the truck’s hood, and I made direct eye contact with a bewildered Kade.

  “Open the door!” I yelled.

  He complied, reaching over his seat and pushing the passenger door open.

  I glanced behind me, only seeing the silhouettes of the creatures. But I knew they and the fingers weren’t far.

  I leaped forward, grabbing onto the top of the truck before swinging inside and slamming the door behind me.

  “Maisie? What the hell happened to you?”

  “Just drive, and I’ll explain everything on the way to the lab,” I yelled.

  Kade complied, turning his truck around and away from the crypt.

  I couldn’t make out the silhouettes of the creatures anymore as we drove away, but I knew they were there.

  And I knew we had to figure out what they were and what I was, for that matter.

  I just hoped our answers would be in the lab.

  Chapter Five

  I looked over my body, running my fingers over the newly formed muscles on my forearms.

  When did those get there?

  The last time I did any actual exercise, except taking down a bunch of creatures in a cemetery, was when Barnes Pharmaceuticals offered a free yoga class in the cafeteria.

  Something had happened to my body, and as a scientist, I couldn’t wrap my head around what would do that so quickly.

  “So…are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Kade finally asked as we pulled onto the main drag toward the highway.

  “Harrison tried to kill me,” I said bluntly.

  Kade slammed on the brakes, causing a few cars to honk and swerve around us, making some not-so-friendly gestures out the window.

  “Are you serious?” He blinked hard and then slammed his fists on the steering wheel. “I knew I should have stopped you from going home early. There was no way that ass of a man would cook for you out of the goodness of his heart.”

  “Yeah, he added whatever he’s been working on in the lab to the meatloaf. It paralyzed me, so he brought me to the crypt, thinking I was dead…but then…something happened.”

  Kade frowned as he pulled the car back into drive. “What do you mean something happened?”

  I shook my head, closing and unclosing my fists and looking at the newly heightened veins running down my arms. I was a nurse or lab tech’s wet dream with these things.

  “I don’t know. One minute I’m paralyzed, and the next, I’m feeling stronger than ever. Like I could take on the world.”

  Or a bunch of jaundiced creatures coming after me.

  “We need to go see what’s in my blood. What did this.”

  Kade nodded. “I agree.”

  We tried to talk through what was happening with my body, forming a hypothesis through science.

  But even in the short drive to the lab, we still came up short with a reasonable explanation.

  Not even a steroid shot would act this quickly.

  It was time to see what was going on.

  Many people stayed late in the lab, so there were still a few cars in the parking lot, and no one gave us a second look as we breezed through security.

  Once we got back to the lab, I held my breath, taking in the cool air as we entered.

  Kade immediately went to the prep station, scrubbing his hands to his forearms.

  I did the same after removing my jacket.

  “I’m going to have to do another blood draw, you know?” he said, holding up the new needle.

  I sucked in a deep breath through my teeth and sat on one of the stools. “I know.”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “Man, whatever was injected into you did something to your veins. These are like a bodybuilder’s.”

  “Ha, ha, very funny,” I said, but there was no humor. I thought the same thing.

  And my scientific brain could not wrap my head around it whatsoever.

  I looked away as he poked the needle in my skin.

  But this time, I didn’t even feel the prick.

  Nothing.

  “All right, let me get this one under the microscope, and your other sample should be ready,” he said, pressing a gauze pad on my arm.

  “That’s it. You already did it?” I balked, looking down at the tiny red dot on my arm.

  “Yeah…you didn’t feel it? Usually, you tell me you can feel the blood coursing out of you,” Kade said with a frown as he grabbed one of our slides.

  “Yeah…weird…” I muttered.

  “Okay, let’s first see the sample of your blood from earlier. The Batten’s test should be complete if you want to know that answer….” His voice trailed as he put a sample in the microscope.

  I nodded. “Well, I guess after all this, why the hell not.”

  He looked over our machine and nodded, his face grim. “Positive for Batten’s.”

  “Great…so Barnes did inject me.”

  “Well, he might have this morning, but whatever is in your blood now isn’t like Batten’s patterns,” Kade called.

  I frowned, bolting upright, but he didn’t move from the microscope. “What do you mean?”

  “See for yourself,” he said, slowly pushing the microscope toward me.

  I knew what normal Batten’s blood cells looked like. I’d seen them day in and day out, trying to find a cure.

  Which is what I thought I saw on the microscope. Then a large mass started wiggling toward it, encompassing the blood cells to form new, whole cells.

  “What the hell?” I asked. “This can’t be right. This looks like something out of science fiction. Are you sure this is the right blood sample?”

 

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