Z Island Series | Book 3 | Survivors of Z Island [Retribution Part 1]

by Osborne Jr. , Terrence

  “Faith.”

  “I’m just watching them.”

  “Faith…”

  “Okay,” she shrugged as she helped Jess, “I’m just looking after her.”

  “Trust me, nothing’s going to happen.”

  Faith exhaled loudly and laid down on her sleeping bag. Jess giggled and laid next to her.

  “At least not today,” she whispered.

  “Jess!”

  Lisa looked over and saw Jess and Faith laughing amongst themselves and smiled. Steven looked outside and heard nothing. It was too quiet for him. Usually, there’s always something to go wrong.

  “You know it’s weird.” Steven said aloud.

  “What?”

  “For there to be no zombies. Two nights in a row. It’s never this quiet.”

  “Welcome to my world.”

  “Huh?”

  “Traveling from New York to here was a mess. We had way more people than what we came with, but in some of those awful days, we had days like this. Where, for once, we could act as if nothing happened to the world. We would dance and laugh, but the worst part about it all was pretending. Even then, we would continue to do it.”

  “I never had days like that. After I lost my family, I was on my own. I taught myself how to survive. Since then, I’ve been moving from group to group, all of which never gave me days like that. Not until your group pulled me in and showed me all of this. It’s a new experience for me. In a long time.”

  “Well, I’m glad you like us.”

  “I like you more.” Steven smiled as he grabbed her hand and rubbed it gently.

  ─

  The night was quiet. No zombies were walking outside, and everyone was sleeping peacefully. Almost everyone. Penny stood by the front window and stared outside with a cigarette in her hand. She was shaking fearfully as the darkness around her seemed to fill her vision. She closed her eyes and felt the smoke brush against her cheek. She saw a zombie walk by the window a few meters away, but she simply ignored it and kept smoking. Denny woke up and smelled the smoke that exited Penny’s mouth. He stood up and walked up to her from behind, but she continued to smoke when she saw him stand next to her.

  “Are you okay?” Denny asked.

  “What’s it to you?”

  “I was just-”

  “This is something most people like you would do in situations like this. To comfort them. Pretend they care,” she slowly glanced at him and blew smoke, “this isn’t one of those situations Denny. You know that.”

  Denny looked down and walked away from Penny. She scoffs and continued to look outside and smoke.

  ─

  The next morning, Denny woke up before everyone else and looked around. The sunrise had cast a bright light into the building, but the room seemed to remain dark. He stood up and wiped his eyes, putting on his glasses, but he noticed Penny wasn’t laying down. He quickly glanced around the room and began to freak out.

  “Guys,” he said, but no one was waking up, “Guys!”

  Jess jumped up and looked at Denny. Everyone woke up and paid attention to Denny as he ran around the room looking for Penny. Eddy and the others both went with Denny outside, but Jess couldn’t concentrate. She wasn’t fully awake, but she forced her eyes open and grabbed her gun. Faith waited by the door for Jess while everyone walked around outside looking for Penny. Lisa and Steven walked towards the door, but Faith extended her arm across the exit.

  “What?” Lisa asked.

  “Stay inside. Just in case.”

  Lisa nodded her head and stood to the side with Steven as Jess walked up behind her.

  “What happened?” Jess asked.

  “I don’t know. Denny just ran outside looking for Penny. We don’t know where she is.” Faith answered.

  Jess and Faith walked outside and looked around, but there was no trace to figure out where Penny might have gone. Jess noticed Denny’s concern for Penny, which looked to be more than just looking for her out of simple worry.

  “Denny, calm down.” Adam said as he approached Denny, placing his hand on his shoulder.

  “I can’t!” Denny shouted as he snatched away from Adam, “You know what we’ve been through. I can’t just calm down right now! Something was wrong with her last night. I didn’t push her. She used to talk to me.”

  “We will find her. Let’s just get our weapons and search for her. Okay?” Adam calmly suggested.

  “Okay.” Denny exhaled.

  As Denny walked back to the building, a woman came from the side of the building and pointed her gun at him. Jess spotted the woman and pulled her gun out, but more people approached from hidden areas and pointed their weapons at all of them. Lisa gasped and pulled Steven from being seen.

  “Who’s that?” Steven asked.

  “I don’t know. What do we do?”

  “We sneak to the back. They’re going to come inside. I can feel it. We can’t risk being seen.”

  Steven grabbed her hand as they kept low while slowly sneaking to the back of the building. Jess kept her gun pointed at the woman in front of her, focused. The woman began walking slowly towards her, peeking into the building for anyone else and continued walking.

  “We don’t want any harm!” Jess alerted them.

  “You’re not allowed to talk!” the woman said.

  “Says who?”

  “Says me.”

  A few zombies were headed their way, but the woman nodded at her men and they shot the zombies. Everyone kept their guns pointed at one another, but no one took the first shot. The woman’s wrinkled face frowned, and her boots squeaked with each step, which forced Jess to squeeze the trigger tighter each time.

  “Woman, you don’t want to do this.” Jess warned her.

  “Put down your guns.” She demanded.

  “Not a chance.”

  “We have one of your own,” the woman said as she signaled one of her men with the snap of a finger.

  Another man came around the building with Penny tied up. She was bleeding from her head, but it was minor. Cloth covered her mouth from talking and her hands were tied. Denny saw her and instantly scowled at the woman.

  “Once I get my hands on you-”

  “Put your weapons down or she dies.”

  The man threw Penny to the ground and put his gun to the back of her head. Jess’s finger loosened from the trigger as she thought about Penny’s life and the consequences of what could happen. Her face remained serious, but internally she was unstable. Thoughts flooded her mind on what to do, but she saw Denny step forward and throw his gun down. At first, she wanted to tell him to not give in, but as she looked around her, there was nothing she could do to save their lives.

  “Well?” the woman asked.

  Everyone followed Denny’s lead and threw their weapons down, but Jess kept her gun in her hand. She and the woman stared at one another for a minute before the woman grabbed her gun and walked over to Penny and shot her gun. Jess jumped and assumed she killed Penny, but the bullet hole rested close to Penny’s face. The smoke flowed out of the woman’s gun in front of Penny and frightened everyone.

  “I’m not a patient person.” The woman said.

  Jess was shaking, but she knew there was no other choice. She threw her gun down and backed away. The woman smiled, showing her gritty yellow teeth, and ordered her men to search the building.

  “Well, now that we got that out of the way, you’re going to come to my community and serve us.” The woman said as she walked in front of Jess.

  “I’m not doing shit.”

  The woman gripped the bottom of her gun and hit Jess in the groin. Coughing heavily, Jess fell to her knees, but the woman kept anyone from going near her. She looked at all their faces and saw how angry they were. Their frustration only made her feel more in control.

  “I’m assuming you lead this little wolf pack?”

  “Fuck you lady!” James yelled.

  One of her men hit James across his head and made him fall
to the ground. The woman chuckled and pointed her gun at everyone.

  “Now, follow your leader and get down.”

  Jess quietly sobbed to herself as she heard the rustling sounds of the group getting on their knees. She knew at this moment they had lost. The men walked out of the building and held bags of food and equipment.

  “You guys don’t have shit.”

  “You don’t have to do this.” Jess said.

  “I know. We want to.”

  “There’s a cure!” Faith shouted.

  “What?” the woman asked with curiosity.

  “That’s where we are going. There’s a cure.”

  “Really?” the woman squatted next to Faith, “and where is this cure?”

  “I guess you’ll just have to keep us alive if you want to know.” Jess answered.

  “Smart. However, I could care less about a cure. I’m fine in a world like this. A world without law and order. A world where we can do whatever the hell we want. Who doesn’t want a world like that?”

  “People who actually have something to live for.”

  The woman leaned over to Jess, “And you think I don’t?”

  “No. Not if you’re doing this.”

  The woman stood up and grinned, “I like you. Get them up. It’s time to bring them home.”

  The men forced them up and led them away from the building. Faith looked inside of the building and kept calm as she glanced over at Jess. Jess nodded her head and continued walking. As they disappeared behind the building. Lisa and Steven slowly peeked out of the building and looked around. Lisa walked near the end of the building and looked around the corner. She saw the people taking the group elsewhere. Steven looked around inside the building for anything that may have been left behind.

  “There’s nothing. They took everything. Luckily, I brought our bags to the back with us.” Steven said as he walked near her.

  Lisa rubbed her head and paced back and forth, “Okay. We need a plan. We have to get them.”

  “First, we need to see where they are going. After we figure that out, we can go from there.”

  “Okay.”

  Steven grabbed her and hugged her, “They’ll be okay. Alright?”

  “I know.”

  “You have your weapons?”

  “Only my knife. My gun was in the bag.”

  “Shit! Okay, I have my knife and gun. We’ll just have to be careful. Let’s go get our group.”

  ─

  There was nothing Jess could think of now other than Lisa and Steven. The woman’s guards didn’t check the building good enough, which was fine with Jess. Denny walked close to Penny, but Adam comforted Meredith while James walked behind Eddy and Marcus. She didn’t know where they were headed, only that it was away from where they were supposed to be. Zombies kept coming, but against Jess’s wish for the group to be overrun, the men killed every single one of them. The woman walked ahead of the group with pride and order. Her short stance spoke much of respect and dignity, but Jess knew everyone had a breaking point.

  “You can try to form whatever plan you can in your head,” the lady said as she turned around, “but it won’t work. We’ve already had someone try that before and it didn’t turn out too well for them.”

  She stared directly at Jess and continued to walk. The group stood still, but the men around them shoved them forward, forcing them to keep walking. Penny held her head down as they continued to walk, but Denney walked next to her and looked at her. She felt him staring, but she chose to ignore him.

  “What did they do to you?” he whispered.

  “Stop talking.”

  Adam walked next to Denny and gestured his head to bring him away from Penny. Denny sighed and kept walking alongside Adam.

  “If you want to survive like we’ve been doing, trust only me.” Adam whispered.

  “I know that,” Denny replied.

  ─

  Lisa grabs her bag from her back and put a can of peaches in her backpack from the shelf. Steven stood in front of the store and watched Jess and the group disappear from his sight.

  “Hey, they went around the corner, we can stop them if we-”

  Lisa was found staring in the back room of the store, but she wouldn’t move, “Look.” She pointed.

  Steven walked next to her and glanced inside. He sighed as he saw the rotten couple on the ground, still holding hands. Just by standing there, Steven knew how Lisa felt about seeing them and grabbed her hand.

  “Some people weren’t made to survive this kind of world.”

  “I know. I just don’t like this. We’re so close yet so far. Now we have this new group to worry about. What if they don’t make it? What do we do then?”

  “What we’ve always been doing. Survive.”

  “Maybe. Sometimes we think we can survive under any circumstance, but if we lose the one person we truly love, we could be pushed over the edge. That’s why I fear for Jess. I don’t think she truly came back from Sam.”

  “She didn’t, but she’s taking it one day at a time. She has people around her that support and loves her. That helps more than you think.”

  “But what if she didn’t have that? What if me or Faith or you didn’t have someone to help us get through what we’ve been through? Do you think we’re all as strong as we say? Or is it the people around us that define our thoughts and actions?”

  “I hope we never find out. Come on.”

  ─

  About an hour of walking proved how dedicated the woman was to bring them to her community. Jess looked blankly ahead at the university campus they were approaching. The entire campus around them was built into a survival camp. Around the guarded campus was many wooden spikes that were covered in old zombie blood. As for as Jess was concerned, humans contributed to it.

  “Open the gate!” one of the guards above yelled.

  The woman stood in front of the gate as it opened to a huddle of men that held guns in their hands, waiting for their next order.

  “Fresh meat!” one of the men yelled.

  Three men walked behind the group and followed behind as they entered the community. The community stretched around most of the campus; the dorm halls served as housing for the hostages while the large fields were used for markets. However, there was a large wall made with wood and metal sheets. The woman stopped the two men from behind the group and pushed them back.

  “Circle back. Check buildings, streets, everything. We want to be sure they’re it.”

  The men nodded their heads and walked away as one of the men grabbed their sledgehammer from his back and walked away.

  “This is where you will be for the rest of your days,” she yelled as she spun around and held her hands up high with authority and pride, “serving me and my people.”

  Jess stopped in front of her and didn’t say anything. The woman noticed her stare and walked closer to her.

  “Is there going to be a problem?”

  Jess smiled, “There already is.”

  The woman chuckled, “I hope you don’t intend to solve this problem. People who try to do so usually cause more pain on themselves. More than the person or people they wish to inflict them on.”

  “You overestimate yourself.”

  “That statement goes both ways,” the woman looked at her men, “put them away for now. I have something planned just for them.”

  ─

  Lisa peeked from the broken window that was about a block away from the community in a three-story building. She held the binoculars close as she saw the woman order the two men to go searching and pulled the binoculars away from her face.

  “There’s two men walking away from the community. She might’ve told them to search the nearby area.”

  Steven loaded his gun and placed it back in his holster, “Alright. Well, we’ll just have to deal with them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We might have to kill them.”

  “What?”

  “Lo
ok, I know how it seems, but-”