by Shandy Jo
Chapter 3
Exhausted Ava sat on the pile of blankets and pillows she’d taken from the various beds. It’d taken the better portion of the afternoon to pack and load the food in the SUV. Along with scavenging anything else that could be useful from the house. Biting into a protein bar Ava stared at the metal case. With a sigh, she put in the combination and pulled it open. Inside was a yellow manila envelope, a road map, and under those five bottles of emergency pills each with a family members name on the label. Beside the pills were her two Browning Buck Mark Black Label twenty two caliber pistols snug in their holsters. Ava smiled looking at the pink grips she’d insisted on. A couple boxes of extra ammo sat next to the guns along with an MRE.
Ava transferred the ammo, MRE and pills to the backpack. The pills were a backup in case the vaccination failed. According to the doctor who had administered the shot, some people hadn’t been receptive to the vaccination. Once bitten they became sick, the pills could cure them and anyone else susceptible to the virus. Ava knew she was not one of those people, early on she’d gotten bit while clearing the plant. Granted she hadn’t felt one hundred percent for a few days, she hadn’t changed either. Laying the guns beside her on the floor she felt much safer, granted using the golf club would draw less attention. She was still happy to have the guns as a back up.
Butterflies flitted through her belly as she looked at the envelope. Reaching over she lit the few candles she had found throughout the house. In the flickering light she opened the envelope and removed the papers. Her father had been one of the higher ups in New York's division of the party. He had access to information that would be useful to them once the plague had done it’s job and purged the world of it’s unworthy.
The plan had always made Ava unsettled, she hadn’t liked what happen. All the innocents that had died to pave the way for this new world order. What right did they have to choose who would live and who would die? The fact was if her own dark secret were to get out, then she wouldn’t even be safe in this new world. No matter who her parents were. They had their ideal new race and those perceived as not belonging would be purged.
Closing her eyes Ava took a moment to regroup her thoughts and turned back to the papers in her hands. They detailed the plan, outlines, time projection, possible problems, everything had been accounted for. Yet the state of that zombie she’d met on the road had Ava puzzled. The original generation of infected should have been gone, nothing but decaying lumps unable to move. The second generation, those bitten by the first, should be reaching the end of their cycle. The Walking Death virus had been created to spread quickly, while speeding up the rate of decay. In theory the weapons used to cull the masses would self destruct, allowing the party to ride and save the day. But Ava had a feeling that wasn’t going to be what happened.
Rifling through the pages she finally found one thing that could account for what was happening. On the bottom of a page she found, a note stating that mutations to the virus could occur and would be dealt with as they arose. In other word the virus could mutate into something they hadn’t planned for, yet they went ahead with it anyway. There was no way of knowing exactly how the virus had mutated. Granted she wasn’t a scientist and had almost failed Chemistry, Ava knew in her gut that this wasn’t a good thing.
Chapter 4
After a restless night Ava got an early jump on the day, leaving the house just as the sun peaked over the horizon. In the direction of the lake Ava could still see wisps of smoke rising. Without GPS or Google Maps she had to rely on her own navigational skills and the road map. Wanting to lesser used roads she plotted a course going north then cutting east to get to the edge of the contamination zone. She would then skirt the zone heading south again, then back up North East to get to Big Moose. Sure it was round about, but she didn’t know the area and needed to stick to designated roads. Thankfully the SUV had a full tank of gas and she’d found an extra can in the garage.
She’d been driving for awhile and had seen nothing but a few zombies and discarded cars on the roads. Her guard relaxed the longer she drove, revving the huge vehicle up well passed the speed limit. When the motorcycle darted out in front of her, Ava thought her eyes were playing tricks. Slamming on the brakes, the SUV skidded it’s momentum to great to bring it to a stop. Ava cranked the wheel away for the smaller vehicle, which had wiped out the driver pinned under it. She had little time to think as she left the road flying over the shoulder and careening into the tree line. Ava’s head bounced off the door, making her see stars before the airbag deployed smacking her in the face as she hit the first tree. After that the world went dark.
****
Ava woke to a jarring sensation and the feeling she’d fallen asleep on the bus. Blinking she realized she was on a bus, although the engine sounded slightly quieter than the school bus she was used to. A pretty young woman appeared over her and smiled, “You’re awake.” She placed a cool washcloth to Ava’s forehead. “You might want to stay lying down, you hit your head pretty good in that accident and I’m pretty sure your arms broke too.”
With a groan Ava stayed put, she felt as though she’d been beaten within an inch of her life. Looking up she took in her nurse, the girl was about her age with curly golden brown hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Big brown eyes, glanced down at her again. She had a slender build but didn’t look to be starving, her skin looked sun kissed as though she’d been tanning.
Licking her lips Ava asked, “Where am I?”
“Oh sorry, bad manners.” The girl replied looking down at her, with a smile. “I’m Mica and you’re on our bus. Don’t worry we’ll take care of you.”
Other Books in The Survivalists Series
Book 3: Piper- (work in progress) https://thesurvivalistas.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-survivalistas-book-3-piper.html
About the Author- Shandy lives in Upstate New York with her husband, two kids, four cats, and dog. By day is a not so mild mannered sewing machine operator. At night, and on weekends, she is Super Mom. Chasing kids, cleaning house, wrangling animals and whatever else might come up. She also runs several blogs.
You can find out more about The Survivalists series on it's blog https://thesurvivalistas.blogspot.com/.
My other blogs-
The Mad Mind of Shandy Jo - Personal Blog
Mama Knows Books - A Book Blog
From String Bean to Lean Machine - Hiking, Fitness, and My Journey to run a 5K (and not barf at the end) Blog
