Rich dad, poor zombie.

Your dad?” Dave repeated, just above a whisper.

Robbie nodded solemnly as he held his rifle steady on us.

I shook my head. So Robbie had lost it. That was okay, it happened all the time out here.

“No, honey.” My tone was ultra gentle. “You’re just confused. He’s not your dad.”

“Oh yeah, he is,” The Kid insisted without an ounce of hesitation.

I stared at him, then looked at Dave. “I-I don’t understand.”

“Who do you think left the note in the camp for you?” The Kid asked before he motioned toward himself with a finger he lifted briefly from the rifle. “And why do you think I just happened to show up and lead two zombies right to you when you couldn’t get your own the first day you were hunting for him?”

Dave swallowed hard. “Then why didn’t you just tell us who you were then? Why did you act surprised about the warehouse and the elevator and the electric lights and all that shit?”

“It was all part of that sick fuck’s game,” I whispered.

Robbie nodded again. “He wanted you to do what he wanted. And he needed someone to watch you. If you knew I was doing that, you wouldn’t have been so… honest.”

“You little punk,” I snapped as I reached for him.

His finger tightened on the trigger. “Please don’t make me shoot you, Sarah. I like you. I don’t want to hurt you or kill you.”

I stopped. At some point I don’t think I would have believed Robbie would pull the trigger. Now I didn’t know anything anymore. Turns out I was a shitty judge of character, as my choices of friends clearly indicated. At least friends in the Barnes family.

There was a bang off in the distance that sounded like desks being turned over and all of us looked toward it.

“Sounds like all the shooting brought some zombies from the upper floors,” The Kid said, watching us with a wary side glance. “So we should probably get a move on before they come. Grab your specimen.”

“What specimen?”

He tilted his head. “The lady on the cart, Sarah.”

I stared. “You knew I got one? You watched me?”

He nodded. “Of course. I had to follow you to make sure you were doing what you were supposed to do.” He glanced at the dead bionics in the classroom doorway. “Dad’s not going to be happy about that, though.”

“Son of a bitch,” Dave grunted through clenched teeth.

Robbie shrugged. “He has his reasons. I’m sure he’ll explain them if he feels like it. Now grab the woman and let’s go.”

Dave and I looked at each other briefly. I think we both were thinking about defying him, maybe even trying to disarm him, but I’d seen The Kid fight. One or all of us could end up dead that way.

So we climbed over the bodies, took the unconscious zombie off the cart and let The Kid walk behind us as we made our way to the SUV parked outside.

“Keys?” he asked mildly, just like it was any other day with him.

“In my pocket,” I grunted.

He shook his head as he slipped his little hand inside my pocket and grabbed them. As we moved around to the cargo hold, he shook his head.

“No, I think you two are more dangerous to me than she is in this state. So why don’t you put her in the back seat and you two can sit behind the gate in the cargo area.”

I shook my head as he unlocked the vehicle.

“Robbie,” I said, trying to keep my voice free of the anger and betrayal I felt. “You have no idea how long that shit I gave her will last. She’s been out for almost half an hour already and she could—”

“Two hours,” he said as he motioned with the gun for us to put her in the backseat.

“What?” Dave said.

“She’ll stay out for almost exactly two hours unless I inject her again.” The Kid smiled but there was a hint of pity in his stare, too. “Come on, Sarah. You know my dad lied to you about a bunch of other stuff, do you really think he hasn’t tested all his stuff on the zombies like hundreds of times?”

I blinked. Of course he had. But if that was true, why had he needed us? I guess I’d have to ask him the second I saw the fucker.

We slung the zombie into the back and propped her up against the opposite door. At Robbie’s insisting, we even buckled her in.

“What are you going to do, use her to ride in the HOV lane?” Dave asked with a shake of his head as we closed the back door.

“Maybe,” Robbie laughed. “Wouldn’t want to get a ticket, right? Now, you two get in the back. It’s unlocked.”

I exchanged another look with Dave. “You could tell him we just got away,” I said softly. “You’ll have his zombie, right? Why not just let us go?”

“We’ve been your friends,” Dave encouraged.

There was a brief moment of guilt that flashed in The Kid’s eyes, but then he shook his head. “But he’s my dad. I have to do what he wants. Just get in.”

“Fuck,” Dave grunted as he climbed into the back of the SUV.

I clambered in after him, but before I could get settled, Robbie said, “Now sit back to back. I’m going to tie you up.”

“What?” I started, but Dave grabbed my hand and gave me a look. The Kid would have to put the gun down to tie one of his fancy knots, which just might give us a chance for escape.

Except… he didn’t. He pulled a handgun from one of those many magical pockets of his and leveled it in my face as he set the shotgun down at his feet. Keeping it steady, he somehow managed to get ropes wrapped around both our wrists and a knot tied.

All with one fucking hand.

“Damn, kid, you really are good at that,” I said with begrudging respect.

He smiled as he started to put the back door down. “Well, there’s not exactly a lot of TV to watch anymore. I have lots of time to practice.”

Then he was gone, the door shut and the two of us trapped behind the cargo gate. I rested my head back against Dave’s shoulder.

“So now what?”

“I don’t know,” Dave sighed. “I’m thinking. Aren’t you supposed to be the brains of this operation?”

I laughed despite our situation. “Well, let’s see, I believed a mad scientist and a crazy kid over you. I’m going to say that my brain power isn’t so great anymore. I may already be a zombie.”

Dave’s fingers found mine and he squeezed gently. “Just stay calm. We’ll figure a way out of this.”

I wasn’t so sure as The Kid got into the SUV and put it in gear just like he did it every day.

“Are you really eleven?” I called forward in the vehicle as he squealed the tires out of the parking lot and steered us back toward the highway.

“Yeah,” he called back. “That part was true. Why?”

“Well, you’re fucking driving the car like you’re in the 500,” I said as Dave and I rocked helplessly as he took yet another corner on all but two wheels. I think he might have been getting even for all the times our driving threw him around in the back of the van.

“You should have seen me following you on the motorcycle earlier today,” The Kid said with the smugness of a child who has the coolest new toy before anyone else. He smiled at me in the rearview mirror, but his eyes barely appeared in the glass because he was so short.

I blinked a couple of times at the idea of such a thing. “You know how to drive a motorcycle. At fucking eleven years old?”

He rolled his eyes. “I learned how to drive when I was eight, running around in the desert while my dad worked in the lab.”

Behind me, Dave shifted. I could feel his rage, his betrayal, bubbling through his body. It made his back hot against mine.

“It’s okay,” I whispered.

He craned his neck back a little in a jerking motion. I could only see a tiny portion of his face from the corner of my eye as I strained toward him, but he looked as pissed as he felt.

“Well, I guess we’ll find out in a minute,” he said. “We’re pulling up to the warehouse.”

I craned my neck. Sure enough we were. And who was waiting for us? Barnes. He waved as The Kid slid into place in front of the old building and put the SUV in park.

Robbie got out and closed the door behind him. We couldn’t hear them, but I watched in surprise as The Kid approached Kevin. The doctor opened his arms and embraced the little boy briefly, ruffling his hair as they parted. They spoke for a moment, with The Kid motioning occasionally toward us and the car.

Kevin’s smile eventually fell and he walked up to the back of the SUV. Slowly, the hatch back glided open, sending a stream of bright sunshine in to blind us since we couldn’t lift our hands to shade our eyes. Barnes stepped in front of us, though, and then he blocked the sun, becoming only an ominous shadow standing before us.

“Hello, Sarah, David,” he finally said as he leaned down so I could see his face. It was remarkably smug. “I do hope you’ll forgive my boy for bringing you to me this way. But this has become our only option, I’m afraid.”

“Fuck you,” Dave spat.

Kevin smiled slightly, though the slur made his eyes lose a bit of their pleasure. Apparently he still didn’t like the language, which made me want to sing any song I could think of from South Park if only to piss him off. “Robbie’s Dad is a Bitch” seemed like an appropriate alteration of one.

“Let’s all go inside, shall we?” he said with a gesture toward the warehouse… like he was inviting us in for fucking tea or something.

He pulled out a shotgun of his own (aw, matching father/son psychos, how cute) and motioned us out of the car with the barrel. Since we were tied, exiting the SUV took some maneuvering, but we finally managed to slowly move out of the back of the vehicle together. Back to back, we walked toward the warehouse.

Dave was in the lead, facing forward. He never dragged me, in fact we were almost in perfect tandem. Those facts made me feel more guilty than ever about not believing him… about taking the side of the son of a bitch who walked behind us, that smug smile still trained on me as he cradled the shotgun in his arms. How had I ever thought he was even remotely cute?

The Kid was in front, leading the way. I could hear the soft crunch of his boots on the gravel up ahead of us and could only imagine that poor Dave was just keeping it together having to follow the little brat.

We should have just let the damn zombies eat him back when we first found him. But hindsight is twenty-twenty, right?

Down the elevator we rode and let me tell you, that was an awkward ride. I’m sure you know what I mean. Haven’t you ever gotten on an elevator with just a couple of people, maybe even one of whom you know a little, but no one has anything to say? And it feels like it takes forever to get to your floor?

Yeah, it was just like that except with guns and bound hands. Oh and no elevator music, thank God.

Still, we somehow made it into the lab and as the doors downstairs opened, Dave shook his head.

“What the fuck with all this captive shit, Barnes? If you’re going to kill us, why not just get the fuck to it?”

I jerked to look at him over my shoulder. Was he nuts? I mean, I hadn’t fought for so many months just to get shot with my hands tied behind my back like some kind of mob moll in a bad Godfather rip-off. At least I wanted the chance to fight.

“I don’t like waste, David,” Barnes said as he stepped closer to us. “I like to use and re-use. This will be over for you soon enough. At least, I think it will be.”

“What do you mean, you think it will be?” I asked, hating how my voice shook.

He looked at me and there was a tightness, a sadness around his mouth. “We may know a great deal about how the zombie body functions, but very little about the mind. For all I know, those poor souls are utterly aware of everything going on around them, their minds intact and unable to stop themselves as they dive into their victims and roam the earth in rotting hell.”

I squeezed my eyes shut at the nightmare Barnes painted. My stomach turned and I barely kept my food from earlier in the day down. I really wished I hadn’t eaten his crappy croissant.

“Now, move,” Barnes said, the softness in his voice gone as he pressed the side of his gun against Dave’s chest and shoved him.

Dave snapped forward with a rather feral snarl, dragging me behind him as he rolled up on Barnes.

“Hey!”

All of us stopped and turned because it was The Kid who had spoken. He held his gun level to Dave’s face and he said, “Let’s just go to the room and we’ll talk this all out there. Okay?”

Dave was tense as a board as he shook his head in disgust, but he followed The Kid, forcing me to back along behind him, my eyes once again on Barnes.

“Is he your real kid or is this one of those ‘New World-New Family’ deals you see so often in the camps?” I asked with an even glare for Barnes. I still couldn’t believe they were related, no matter what Robbie said.

He stared back at me evenly. “Oh, he’s very much of my own flesh,” he said with a smile. “Don’t you see it in our eyes?”

I shook my head. “I guess I never looked closely enough.”

He nodded. “Well, that was your mistake, I suppose. One of many I’m sure you’re reviewing in your head right now and kicking yourself for them.”

I didn’t get to respond because we moved into a room. This wasn’t a place I had seen during my tour of the facility the previous day. But then, as Barnes had said, that had been my mistake, too. I had been willing to believe that what he showed me in those first dozen or so rooms was true and had never guessed that it was all a manipulation. He’d made the gamble that I’d give up when so many rooms he showed me were anything but sinister.

Stupid me, his bet had paid out at least double. But then, I’d never done so well in Vegas anyway.

The room was big, with bright lights above that made the sterile white walls all the more painfully stark. I blinked as I looked around. There was a big window on one side of the room that looked into a lab. On the other walls were large doors, but they didn’t look like they opened on hinges, but rather slid up and down.

Barnes backed up to the door and lifted his shotgun to his shoulder. “Now, Robert, please do untie Sarah and David. And don’t try anything, you two, because I will shoot you without hesitation.”

I bit my lip, glaring at the doctor as The Kid unlooped the ropes around our wrists. Once we were able to break apart, Dave and I turned to face each other, each rubbing our raw wrists and looking at the other. There was no need to say much, we’d been together long enough to read something of the other’s mind and mood.

Neither of those were filled with very positive thoughts. As the door we’d entered slammed shut behind Barnes and The Kid, I reached out to take Dave’s hand. I shook my head.

“Sorry. This is my fault.”

His brow wrinkled and he stared down at me. “Not likely. The only one at fault here is that prick and his brat. They were the ones who preyed on your desire to find some kind of hope in the future.”

I dipped my chin as heat flooded my cheeks. “Yeah, well, so much for that, huh? I mean, I should have stuck with your way and only trusted what I could see around me. See where hope got me? Us?”

“Hey.” He lifted my chin with his finger. “I like that you have hope. When you believe there’s a future out there… it kind of makes me think that maybe there could be. There can only be one cynical jerk in this partnership and it’s me.”

“Very sweet,” came a voice from the speakers that were mounted around the room.

We both looked at the big window that faced into the adjoining room. Barnes was now sitting at a desk behind the glass, holding a microphone as he stared in at us.

“Where’s The Kid?” I asked.

“Still worrying over him even though he’s entirely capable of taking care of himself?” Barnes asked, and I thought I detected a hint of surprise in his tone. “He went out to collect the specimen you caught for me, Sarah. And by the way, thank you for that.”

“Thanks for almost getting me killed with your freak machines, asshole,” I snapped as I took a long step toward the glass.

Dave caught my arm and held me steady so that I couldn’t waste my energy going for the window.

Barnes shook his head. “I didn’t actually intend for my… what did you call them?” He seemed to ponder for a moment. “Oh yes, I remember now, bionics. I like that name. But I didn’t intend for my bionics to attack you in the school. I had hoped to drag our partnership out for a while longer before you learned the truth. Perhaps even to find a way to convince you to come around to my way of thinking.”

I burst out a grunt of disgust and turned my back on the glass.

“Sarah, if you did decide to join me, we could be a remarkable team,” his voice continued behind me. “You are like a warrior woman from some extinct tribe. Think of what we could do with my brains and your brawn and, may I add, beauty. What do you say? Join me?”

I spun around to face him. “I would rather gnaw my own arms off.”

His brow arched through the glass and then he shook his head. “Well, it may come to that eventually, I’m afraid.”

“Aside from wanting to fuck my wife,” Dave snapped as his hand came to rest at the small of my back protectively, “what the hell are you thinking, Barnes? Were you involved in the zombie research? What the hell are you doing creating bionics?”

Barnes settled back into his chair and steepled his fingers in front of him.

“I wish I had been involved in the initial research. I’d heard about it, though it was deeply classified. But there are always whispers in the scientific community. But the research was in Seattle and I wasn’t able to get a transfer. They kept me here, working on other war elements. Like making soldiers stronger. Faster. More obedient.”

I blinked. “Making them bionic?”

“In a way.” Barnes shook his head. “What I told you about the plague hitting the city and us being in lockdown was true. When the alarms went off, though, I insisted that Robbie be brought down to the safety of the lab.”

“And what about his mother?” I asked softly.

“Let the bitch rot,” he snapped, his anger brightening his face in a rare display of his emotions. “She was sleeping with some army major anyway. A real man, she called him. I enjoyed watching her try to claw her way into the facility.”

“Wait, you watched her?” Dave asked in horror.

“Of course. I let her see that the boy was taken down to the labs. She begged the cameras, she pleaded with me… but I let the infected swarm over her. She was so torn apart, she didn’t even re-animate.”

I backed away from the window a step and stared. “Sadistic bastard.”

He shrugged. “Vengeance is commonplace in a world such as this. Are you saying that since the plague broke out you’ve never just killed someone because you didn’t like them? I mean, there’s no way you wouldn’t get away with it.”

“There’s been enough killing to last me a lifetime,” I said with a deep breath. “I don’t need to do it to frivolously satisfy my pride or my sense of moral outrage because someone took a parking place from me once.”

“Interesting that you compare stealing a parking place to stealing a wife,” Barnes said softly. “Either way, once she was dispensed with, the remaining survivors had to deal with the reality of our situation. And when one of the military men became ill, we realized that the infection had been brought down into the lab.”

I stared for a moment at Barnes and then let my gaze move to David.

“The infection came down here and you survived?” he asked in disbelief. “In this tight environment?”

“Well, we caught the man very quickly and confined him. In truth, his condition became very useful, for I was able to study him. I took core samples of his tissue, his brain, and using those I was able to begin work on various elements of the infection. One by one, I tested my theories first on the infected soldier, but then I needed to expand my research. So I picked others in our group of survivors.”

I covered my mouth. “So these people were trapped down here with you and you used them as guinea pigs.”

“No,” he said evenly through the speakers. “I used guinea pigs as guinea pigs. I used humans as test subjects. There were a few who caught on to my schemes, but they were easily isolated and taken care of. By the time the power generators went out above and unlocked the elevator, all that were left were just Robbie and me.”

“Then why did you need us?” I asked with a shake of my head. “Why call us here and ask us to catch you zombies if you were capable of creating and testing on them on your own?”

He shrugged. “I have created them and tested on fresh and actively turning specimens, yes. But what I told you when we first met was also true. I needed more zombies of differing kinds and rot levels.”

“Why not get them yourself?” I pressed. “You’re clearly more than capable.”

He sniffed like the idea was beneath him. “I wasn’t about to go out myself and try to capture them. So you truly were doing me a service by helping me run my tests and increase my… what did you call it, David? My Undead Army.”

I winced because let’s face it, this was my fault. Dave never would have gone along with Barnes’s request if not for me and my insistence that we try to save the world.

“How many were there down here to start with?” Dave asked. “Alive before the outbreak.”

“Ten,” Barnes admitted without hesitation.

“So you killed eight people?” Dave breathed.

“Well, seven,” Barnes said, unapologetic and even bored. “The first one was infected before we were locked down.”

I paced to the corner of the room. “And Robbie saw all this? He knows you murdered his mother, that you slaughtered these people?”

“He’s eleven, Sarah, I know better than to expose him to such things. That’s how people become serial killers.” Barnes shook his head. “No, I protected him from all of that, kept him safe from what was happening around us. And the fact that only the two of us survived the lockdown actually brought us closer together. He needs me and loves me just as a good son should. A fact I think you saw demonstrated today.”

Dave swiped a hand over his face. “And what if we tell him what you did?”

There was a moment’s hesitation. “Why would he believe you over me, his father?” Barnes asked.

“He’s a smart kid—” I began.

He turned his attention on me immediately. “Oh no, Sarah. Robbie tested in the top one percent on all the standard I.Q. tests. He’s a genius, not smart. But he’s a boy. And I doubt you’ll sway him to turn on the one remaining parent he possesses.”

Dave turned toward me, catching my arm so that we faced away from the speakers and the window. “He’s probably right. We have to focus on ourselves now. If we can get to The Kid, fine. If not, well, I’d like to live and stuff.”

“I doubt that will be an option,” Barnes’s voice came from behind us.

“God, I’m really starting to hate that guy,” I said through clenched teeth before I faced the window. “Okay, jerk-off. So you have us, you don’t want us to let anyone else know about your little mad scientist lab, we have no recourse, what’s the plan?”

Before he could answer, the door behind him opened and suddenly The Kid reappeared at his dad’s shoulder. For a brief second, he looked at us through the glass, then he turned away. He whispered something to his father.

Barnes nodded. “Very good.”

I kept my gaze on Robbie. Although Barnes was right that it would be almost impossible to turn The Kid on his only surviving parent, Robbie didn’t look very happy at the moment. The fact that he couldn’t even bring himself to look at us gave me a little hope.

And maybe it was time for him to grow up and know exactly what his dad did to people who didn’t fall in line behind him. Whether that got us out of this or not, it might save The Kid down the line.

“So you’re going to kill us?” I pressed, moving up to the glass so Robbie would be sure to see me. And I could see him. He flinched. “How? Gas us? Shoot us?”

Barnes’s face jerked to me. “Nothing so barbaric. Now Robbie, you may return to your chamber if you’d like.”

“No, why not let The Kid know what you’re going to do to his friends?” I leaned against the glass. “If it isn’t going to be barbaric, then tell me what humane means you’re going to use to get rid of us and keep us from going against your desires, Dr. Barnes?”

He stared at me through the glass. Our faces were less than a foot apart. He was angry, I could see that. And I could also see he was pretty much just on the edge of losing it.

“Today you killed two of my bionics,” he said softly. “Not very good for my army’s record. I want to test them again.”

Dave rushed to my side. “Is that really what you think you’ve created? Look doctor, you can’t control these things. They may have more purpose, more drive, than your average walk-a-day living dead, but they can’t be controlled. If you don’t stop this now, they’ll turn on you. They’ll wipe out whatever’s left of the survivors.”

“I guess we’ll see,” Barnes said softly. “Worst-case scenario, you two will kill them and I’ll get to hone my skills at creation and keep testing them on you until they do destroy you. Best-case scenario, they turn you immediately and I end up with two new specimens and one sticky problem solved. Either way, I win, don’t I?”

From behind Barnes, Robbie shifted. “But—” he began.

Barnes spun on him. “What is it?”

“I-I thought we were going to keep them alive,” Robbie said. “I thought you said—”

“They’re too dangerous,” Barnes said, grabbing The Kid by the upper arms and tugging him closer. “They’re a threat to us, Robbie. And in this world, we have no choice but to eliminate threats.”

“Like your mom,” Dave said next to me. “And all those people down in the bunker with you. It seems like everyone else in the world is a threat, huh Robbie? Ever wonder when you’ll become one to him too?”

Barnes glared at David. “Shut up,” he snapped. He turned back to The Kid. “Now you, go to your quarters if you haven’t the stomach for what must be done. Now.”

The Kid stared at his father for a brief moment and then his gaze moved to us. And there was one thing very clear to me when our eyes met. Robbie was afraid. Afraid of his father, afraid of everything that had happened since the outbreak. On some level, he knew what was happening here. He knew it wasn’t right.

But he didn’t argue. He didn’t do anything except turn around and leave the room without so much as a backward glance for us.

My heart sank. He was our only chance for someone on the outside to help us. Now that he was gone, our options had faded out to just about nothing. Fight or surrender. And there might not be much choice there, either.

“You see,” Barnes said as the door closed behind his son. “With a little discipline you can raise an obedient child even in a post-apocalyptic world. I should write a book.”

“You do that,” Dave said quietly. “I’d love to read your thoughts on raising a man.”

Barnes’s face fell at the implication of my husband’s statement, and when his smile returned it was a harder, colder expression.

“Well, this has been fun, but it’s time for testing. Enjoy.” And then he reached across the desk and depressed a button hidden somewhere beyond my line of sight.