Blood Moon by Gwendolyn Harper (books for students to read .TXT) 📕

herd this size should be movin’ on, lookin’ for food.”

Caitlin furrowed her brow. “Maybe something lured them here.” Twisting in her seat, she tapped Nicole’s arm and pointed. “Look that way, to the left. Do you see that metal thing in the distance?”

After a moment, Nicole nodded. “Yeah. What is it?”

“I don’t know, but what does it look like to you?”

Nicole hummed. “A radio transmitter?”

Booker held out his hand, silently asking for the binoculars. As he stared, he cursed under his breath.

“Is it a transmitter?”

“I dunno,” he said. “But I don’t have a good feelin’ about it either way.”

Caitlin chewed the inside of her bottom lip as she considered their options.

“How much closer can you get us without the herd being alerted?”

Booker stared at her like she’d grown a second head.

“Cae, remember that whole bit of our previous conversation where we said at the first hint of danger, we’d bail?” He flung his hand out, motioning to the grotesque landscape. “This ain’t a hint, it’s a goddamn stone tablet sent from on high.”

“Don’t bring your Sunday School recovered memories into this,” she said. “Now answer the question. How close can you get us?”

Sighing so hard even Caitlin felt it, Booker faced forward and gripped the wheel.

“Jack?”

“We’re about a mile out… I can get us about a quarter of a mile away before the engine noise draws ‘em.”

“Then a quarter of a mile it is.”

“Gonna be the absolute death of me, I swear to God,” he muttered, turning the ignition and shifting into drive.

* * * * * * *

Watching the undead shuffle and sway was bizarrely fascinating. Like seeing a shark swim in a tank, or a bear behind glass at the zoo, it tickled the part of the brain that was equally repulsed and attracted.

Only this time, instead of a well maintained and secure enclosure, they had about four hundred yards and a slight hilltop as the only buffer between them and thousands of Geeks.

Caitlin’s legs twitched, begging her to run away.

She leaned forward, nose almost to the windshield.

“Booker, turn on the radio,” she murmured, voice quieter on reflex.

“Lookin’ for a decent oldies station out here? ‘Cause I can guarantee those ain’t around anymore.”

She rolled her eyes. “I have a theory. Turn it on and hit scan.”

As he did so, she listened to the static, waiting for her hunch to be proven.

After a few channels, something cut through the white noise. A low, barely audible tone that was more vibration than sound. Hitting the scan stop, she turned it up a notch.

“What is that?”

Nicole frowned. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”

“Can one sound make ya go nuts?” Booker asked, leaning away from the speakers on the dash. “’Cause that’d be it.”

“I think it’s how they’re drawing them here,” Caitlin said. “That transmitter probably has speakers too. The Geeks hear it, they feel the vibration, and they follow it to the source.”

“While that’s riveting science, it doesn’t explain why,” Nicole said. “Cae, turn it off.”

“I know it’s annoying but—”

Nicole grabbed her shoulder. “No, Cae, turn it off,” she urged, pointing out the windshield. “They’re starting to hear it.”

Sure enough, a handful of Geeks had noticed the tone coming from the Jeep and were sluggishly changing directions. They were nearly facing them, trudging across the two lane.

“Shit,” Caitlin hissed, smacking the dial and cutting the radio.

Putting the Jeep in reverse, Booker said, “A’ight, enough Magic School Bus bullshit.”

He gave it just enough gas to move them and turned the wheel.

“We’re officially, and without argument, bailing,” he said. “Nicole, how we lookin’?”

“Keep the speed steady and don’t rev the engine,” she said, angled to stare out the back window. “I think we’ll be okay. They’re not following.”

As the herd shrank in her mirror, Caitlin put the pieces together.

“Guys, I know what that was back there,” she said. “And it means we’re nowhere near an Ark camp.”

Chapter Eleven

Caitlin spread the map over the hood of the Jeep, smoothing the wrinkles with her palm. Uncapping the red pen, she marked the location of the transmitter and mother-herd of Geeks and the approximate spot the warning sign had been found.

“Why would an Ark camp set up a system to draw Geeks in from all over?” She asked, labeling the new points of interest.

Leaning over to look, Nicole said, “I’m not sure it would.”

“Exactly. That transmitter was installed to pull Geeks away from whatever area the closest Ark camp is in.”

Pacing the length of the Jeep, Booker kept his gaze on the overgrown fields on either side of them.

“Seems like a dangerous thing t’do,” he said, boots scraping asphalt as he swiveled. “Just leave a herd that size in the middle of the country without tryin’ to keep ‘em enclosed or even pick ‘em off.”

“Sure, but you saw how they were,” Nicole said. “Those zombies were… docile. Barely even moving around. I think that sound must have an affect on the impulse centers of their brains.”

“Calms them into submission.” Caitlin glanced over her shoulder, watching the stretch of road behind them. “And they clearly don’t want to leave and chase down prey.”

“I’d like to know what scientist was tasked with the job of groaner behavioral therapy,” Booker commented, looping around the back and coming up from the other side.

Caitlin nearly gave herself whiplash. “What did you say?”

He blinked at her. “Groaner behavioral thera—”

“It’s a test area,” she interrupted. “That’s what the sign meant—Living and dead. They draw the Geeks away from the Ark camp and have an almost endless supply of undead bodies to experiment on. Two birds, one stone.”

Nicole’s face blanched. “Caitlin, if that’s true, then it would be under surveillance.”

All three of them stared