Page 51 of The Black Rider
“How do you plan on using that to kill Jose or Magda?”
Leif got out a little spray bottle and dumped the contents of the tube in.
“Dice and I talked about an aerosol delivery. I will spray Magda in the face with it and see what happens.”
Aeron stood up and stretched.
“The scientific process seems a lot like throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks.”
“You’re both very right and very wrong. Right, this way.”
We went back to Leif’s little zombie dungeon. Jose and Magda both started trying to kill us when they smelled us. They were violently slamming themselves against the wall and leaving bits of hair and flesh against the wall.
“Get your stick, Aeron.”
“Fuck, do you know how hard the wholezombie on a sticktrick is? Ariel is here.”
Leif waved three needles at us.
“That’s why I brought vaccines. We don’t know what these things do to us, and I want Ariel to get the first vaccine.”
“I want us all to get it,” I said.
“Honestly, I don’t know what a Rage Head bite would do to any of us, but I don’t want to find out. Let me give everyone the vaccine.”
I looked away as Leif went around poking everyone with needles. The vaccine made my entire arm feel super warm, but it wasn’t unbearable. Aeron was grumbling when he went to get his zombie stick. He refused to let Leif open the door until I left the room. I got tired of waiting, and there was a lot of cursing and crashing in there.
“Are you okay in there? Do you need to walk it off?”
“You can come in now, Ariel. You will want to see this,” Leif called.
When I came in, Aeron had a snarling Magda on the end of his stick. She was pretty harmless with her jaw and arms missing, but I had to leave the room, anyway. Leif walked up and just squirted her in the face. Have you ever squirted a cat in the face with a water bottle? Have you ever noticed their reaction? A zombie is pretty much the same.
This look of utter shock went across her rotting face before her eyes went from red to black. Her skin was turning black and drying out like a husk. When she collapsed on the floor, it was like some mummy display fell out of their case and crumbled on the floor.
Aeron looked down at the black dust on his boots.
“Ew. These are my best boots.”
“At least we know it works now, even if it’s super gross,” I said.
“Yes. This means we need to distribute the formula and get Dice here so we can figure out how to get the zombie killing serum to the masses, and he said he would teach Ariel to control her angel side,” Leif said.
“You call Valentina and let her know the science stuff. I’ll contact Dice and tell him to suit up. I’ll also check in with Asher,” Aeron said.
What kind of tantrum would my father throw when all his zombies started dropping dead?
Chapter 34
I
knew we weren’t getting another street party, but fuck, I wanted to celebrate again. Things were finally falling into place. Leif’s conversation with Valentina was brief. She was on her way over here. Dice needed to put some things into place, and then he would pop over. We were seriously doing things. We were ending the apocalypse.
Valentina came storming in shortly after the phone call. Leif showed her Magda and showed her the vaccine results against one of his blood samples. She was duly impressed.
“Well, I’ll be fucked. You totally managed it. Where is the formula?”
Leif handed her a flash drive.
