A-O Bomb Squad 4: The Final Blow

To Vegas and Back

We officially started cracking down on trying to find the cure for the zombie infection. Mom busted out every letter, note, book, and piece of paper the original Bomb Squad had written on to see if the cure was found in the virus itself.

Mom finally ripped off her glasses and slammed her hands on the table as she stood up. "We need to go back."

The others looked at each other. "Back where?" Dad asked.

"To Vegas."

Dad, Boss Man, Coco, and Buzz Kill stared wide eyed at Mom. "Why?"

"I found this pair of coordinates with a note attached saying, 'Hid the formula where Anita will never find it. I can't trust anyone, not even my friends. Coordinates: 36.1244 N, 115.1683 W.' And when I found that on a map, it came up on the Palazzo, Las Vegas."

"So you mean to tell me we're going back into shark infested waters?" Coco asked.

Mom replied, "Technically, we're going back into zombie infested land, but basically, yes." My dad and aunts and uncle looked at each other with doubt, but I had no idea what they'd experienced. I wasn't even born yet. "Guys, they told us where they hid the formula. The antidote could be in the formula. We have to try!"

"Let's do it," I answered. Mom sighed with relief that someone was on her side. "C'mon, what's the worst that could-"

"Don't finish that sentence!" Coco interrupted. "Whenever you say stuff like that, the universe takes it as a challenge and fucks shit up!"

"What could possibly go wrong?" Mom said bravely.

Coco shrank to the floor. "Gah! The fuck did I just say?! Now someone's gonna die!"

Mom disregarded Coco's comment and tried to convince the other three. "We have a chance to save the world. Why wouldn't you take it?" After Coco stopped freaking out, she and the others soon came to the agreement to go. "Great, let's pack up."

It didn't take as long to leave since there were only six of us. We were on the road in, literally, twenty minutes. It also didn't take long to make it from Area 15 to Las Vegas. We had to fight our way through three zombie attacks before making it to the Palazzo. Once we got in the general vicinity of the coordinates, we started looking around. We knew whatever we were looking for was buried, but there weren't many places for us to dig up. Mom stopped dead in her tracks, causing me to bump into her, when she stopped at a large rock next to a patch of dirt about the size of a person. Then it hit me.

"Is this where Sylvan was buried?" I asked shyly.

Mom dropped to her knees and began to sob on the headstone. "Those sick bastards!" she shouted. "Making me dig up his grave! I hate you!" Dad pulled her off and comforted her, while Buzz Kill and Coco used their hands to scoop away the soil. I knelt down and began to help, but all we found was dirt.

"I don't understand. Human bodies don't fully decompose for about forty to fifty years," Coco thought out loud.

"A zombie could've dug him up and dragged him away," Dad suggested.

Boss Man shook his head, "No, zombies only go for fresh blood."

"Then where is he?" Buzz Kill asked.

"Let's keep digging," I instructed. We continued pulling out layers of dirt until my hand touched something. "I found something!" The three of us vigorously began pushing back dirt until we pulled out a small box. "We found it!"

Mom knelt down and opened the box. Inside were pieces of paper with a bunch of symbols and math problems and other things I didn't understand written on them.

"Hey, genius, this one is for you. I don't do math; never have and never will," Mom said handing the paper to Uncle Boss Man. She looked back at the grave. "If this is Sylvan's grave, where's his body?"

"We don't have time to figure this out," Dad replied. "We have to get back to the lab." Then he left for the bus. I was going to ask Mom or Coco why he left so suddenly, but I remembered that he'd stolen Mom from Sylvan. I figured he'd want to get as far away from his grave as he could.

After we got back on the bus, I thought it would be a good time to read another entry from Sylvan. I looked around to make sure it was safe. Mom and Boss Man were digging through the box. Coco was asleep, Dad was sitting next to Mom, and Buzz Kill was driving. I figured I was okay.

Dear journal,

Joe and I emerged out of the weight room. When she asked me how it was, I told her I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else. I never would've pictured myself losing my virginity to a fourteen year old when I was fifteen.

I almost fell out of my seat. Not only were Sylvan and my mom together, but they'd done...it. I didn't know if I had the stomach to keep reading. I decided to skip to the next entry to avoid getting sick.

Dear journal,

The girls (Joe and Coco) started acting really strange after we left the gas station. Coco never seemed to leave Joe's side. I know they're best friends and all, but it was creepy how she was with her every second she could. I was with Joe less than Coco.

I was going to read more, but we arrived back at Area 15. I knew I wouldn't be able to get away with reading it now that we had the formula. I sighed and shoved the journal back into my bag. We went straight for the lab. Boss Man had managed to find out what the math was for. The answers were amounts of substances that went into the formula. The problem was, we couldn't figure out what went in the formula.

"It's put in some sort of scientific language," Mom explained. "I don't know what," she read off the paper, "dextrose, citric acid, and stearate make!" She threw the paper back on the table in frustration. "What makes it worse is we don't have the internet to check what it is!"

"Sounds like something you'd find on the nutrition facts on a box," said Coco.

"Wait a gosh dang minute. I know one thing on this list, citrus juice! It either has to be lemons, limes, or oranges." Mom said smirking, "I should know. It's all I ate when I was pregnant. Darn stuff burned my mouth after awhile."

"Okay, so we know it's got fruit in it, but how does that help us?" Buzz Kill asked.

"Well, dextrose is a type of sugar," Boss Man added.

"So we know it's sugary fruit. How is this helping?"

"Something tells me we need to go to the store," Dad stated, checking over the list.

"I'll go," Mom volunteered.

"Us too," Coco answered for her and Boss Man.

"Buzzie, you coming?" Mom asked.

"Sure, why not?" The four left the lab, leaving Dad and I on our own.

They shouldn't have.