Read My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road for Free Online

viewed the stretch of highway behind us before I climbed into my seat, making an effort to peer out my window when I closed my door. I tucked in my cut lip. Before Dad could start the car, Kaylynn’s eyes were on me. Studying me, like she knew I was hiding something.
    “Hey,” she said. “What’s with your face?”
    “Whose face?” Mom looked back at me. “Jeremy?”
    I had no choice. She’d find out eventually, so I lowered my lip and showed her the damage.
    Thanks for blowing my cover, Chicago Cubs . . .
    “Jeremy Barnes!” Mom cried. “What happened?”
    Dad cleared his throat. “It was just an accident, Honey. He had a nasty spill with a truck door.”
    Those were the facts, so I nodded. Jewel glanced at me next and leaned against Kaylynn. The mystery girl scooted away, more anxiously than before. What was her problem? When that Stalker came up behind me, she didn’t react. She could’ve let that thing sneak up on me and I wouldn’t have known until it was too late. Now she acted like a pansy because of my cut lip?
    Grow a backbone or get out, Your Highness.
    “Did you trip into a door?” Mom asked.
    “Can we just get to David City already?” I said. “It’s getting dark . . .”
    Mom turned around and faced the front. “I want to look at that when we stop.”
    “He’ll be fine,” Dad said, trying to downplay the whole thing. “Just don’t kiss any Vectors, Jeremy.”
    Jewel giggled into her hands, and Mom let out a scoff before laughing herself. Kaylynn’s reaction was altogether different. She didn’t say a word. I sensed an aversion, and some kind of empathy? That may have been wishful thinking. Dad turned the car on, pulled forward and made a right turn. Jewel began singing On the Road Again as we drove toward David City. Chloe panted behind me. It amazed me how quiet she was.
    We passed a house on the right. A second house came into view on my left. Instead of scanning them, as I usual do, I stole a glance at the mystery girl. A strange feeling came over me, an interested feeling that made me all warm and stupid. I had felt that way for Cassidy, but thinking this way about Kaylynn came as a surprise.
    Who was I kidding? We’d just met. At that age, I didn’t know if I was supposed to think of girls like that. Then again, I wasn’t a model teenager. Most of my peers filled their summers with Redbox, video games, or camping trips. I did too, but I also liked occasional chick-flicks, games where I save the princess, and, while looking at the stars and licking s’more guts off my fingers, I’d think of Cassidy. Sometimes I wished I could be a hopeless romantic. I’m no good at it. My problem with this problem is I’m not a heartthrob. What could I do with brown hair and brown eyes? Not much.
    I was plain, boring, and a smidgen skinny. The easy-to-push-over kind of skinny. I won’t bother mentioning my freckled arms and the weird mole on my chest.
    And I just did. Crap.
    I slipped my backpack between my legs and allowed reality to supersede the memories of my past. There was no easy fix for our world. There was no safe house, and most importantly, there was no reset button. The minute I stopped thinking about the here and now, the more likely we’d become Vector meat. Or worse, we’d become one of them . I shivered at the thought.
    Jewel leaned against her window. “Can you fly a plane, Dad?”
    He let off the gas. We coasted by an airstrip to our right. Nothing seemed significant out there, just a few small planes on a runway. A full-sized fighter jet was at the entrance, mounted on a pole, made to look like it was soaring high above ground. We passed another intersection, then a school with a big cross on the building. We’d seen many crosses on our trip so far, even before we had entered Nebraska. I didn’t mind them, but I was a bit tired of the religious jokes by then.
    Thankfully, no one cracked a single pun.
    They were too focused on the road.
    “I’d rather drive.” Dad