“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. Are there any more zombies?”
“No.”
“I’m ready to go.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Jess helped Faith up as they headed for the front door, but Jess started laughing.
“What?”
“You know what’s funny? We should have just shot the doorknob off in the first place.”
Faith thought about it and burst out laughing, “Shit! Why didn’t we think of that?”
“Maybe because zombies were out for our blood!”
“Yeah, we were acting just like those people from the movies.”
“Yeah, we were.”
Jess looked down and saw something under the zombie. She moved it out of the way and picked up a bottle of Advil, “Well, at least something good came out of this.”
“Better than nothing.”
Faith walked out of the nursery talking to someone about what to do next. Their food supply had gotten shorter, but they were forced to manage. The amount they had to split each day became less and children were starving. That feeling, of hopelessness, didn’t sit very well with Jess. She felt as if she was the reason for the starvation that made people’s stomach growl every five minutes. She just sat around almost every day of the week and watched the other groups come and go with no significant change to the supplies. She knew she could help. She fought zombies. Faith fought zombies. They dealt with it head on with no escape and they managed to succeed. What changed?
Faith walked over to her house until she noticed the two men from the gate talking discreetly. They were standing near the gate, pushed to the side where no one could see them; talking amongst their personal space while Faith snuck along the other side of the house. As she leaned her ear around the corner, she heard their conversation and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Their secret was…deadly. It was betrayal.
Minutes later, Eric walked into the house and glanced at Jess, “Hello Jess.”
“Eric. What is it?”
“I know you think I had something to do with Tina’s death, but I-”
“I could care less what you say. I don’t think you did it, but I don’t trust you after the hospital. Until it is proven that you didn’t have anything to do with it, I want you out of this room now.”
Eric backed away slowly and opened the door before turning back around, “Don’t forget who let you live here for the past 10 months. You better hurry. I fear many more people will die before we find out the truth. You people are ruining this community.”
“What truth?”
Eric closed the door and walked away while Jess exhaled loudly and slammed her hands on the desk. She brushed her fingers through her hair thinking about what’s the best option for the group. Just the thought of it sent chills rushing throughout her body. She finally sits up and walks out of the house until Faith pushes her back in.
“Jess. We have to stop them.” Faith whispers as she pulls out her knife and grabs a pistol.
“Faith, what’s going on?”
“I overheard the two guards talking by the gate and…they’re part of Tina’s death.”
“What?”
“I heard them.”
“Ok, well let’s stop them!”
Jess walked past Faith and headed for the door, but she grabs her arm from leaving.
“Jess, we can’t do this now. They’re working for someone. We should find out who that is first. Don’t you think?”
“While we sit here and spy on them, we are putting the whole community at risk. I can’t.”
“Well, then we lure them away from the camp and deal with them outside the gates.”
Jess looks at her with concern, “Faith…as much as I want to-”
An explosion rumbled the house and scared them into grabbing their weapons and rushing outside. Once Jess opened the door, the people running in front of them drew their attention from the smoke floating inside the camp. The huge puddle of smoke floated near one of the houses. A man and two women were laying on the ground dead while children screamed and ran away from the gates. Christine ran past them, but Jess stopped her.
“Christine! What’s going on?”
“Someone threw a grenade from outside the camp! They’re climbing in!”
“Here,” Jess gave Christine a radio, “get everyone out of the camp and go to the safe spot! Now!”
Christine cried and nodded her head while running away. Jess and Faith held their guns up at the gates, but no one came.
“They’re attacking again! Where are they?” Faith asked.
Jess kept quiet and looked around and suddenly caught one man climbing over the gate. Jess aimed her gun and fired, shooting the man in his back and watched him fall inside and struggle to breathe. Jess grabbed Faith’s arm and lead her behind a shed in front of the community while more men climbed over the gate.
“We should stay here. There’s a lot of them.” Jess whispered.
Jess and Faith stood quietly while the men chased after the survivors and started shooting at them. The screams and cries of the survivors caused Jess and Faith to be more silent. Most of them disappeared out of the camp and the men stopped chasing them.
“Just stay here! They left, so we can take their supplies!”
The men looked around and whistled towards the gate. The last man climbed over the gate and observed the camp. It was quiet. The only thing they heard was their own breathing and the loud sound of some of the men gripping their guns hard. The man observed the camp and smiled. He knew it was too easy.
“I know you’re still here! Where else could you go Jess? Sam?”
“I know that voice.” Jess whispered.
“It’s Carlos.” Faith responded.
“Sam! Jess! Where are you?” Carlos sang as he walked ahead and looked around.
Carlos looked at the hole in the ground from the grenade and trembled at the sight of the bodies.
“Just fucking disgusting!”
While they walked forward, Jess and Faith snuck on the other side of the shed, but tried to remain silent.
“Tell Sam I’m sorry for Tina’s death. He had to suffer some kind of way. I was trying to kill you, but obviously, that didn’t work out right.”
The two men that guarded the gate appeared out of nowhere and approached Carlos with their hands up, “Hey, man! We did what you said. Sam’s group is still gone, but we haven’t seen Jess.”
“I knew it!” Faith quietly grunted.
“Okay? So, what do you want?” Carlos asked.
“What Jason promised.”
“Oh, okay!”
Carlos pulled his gun out and shot the two men dead. Jess peeked around the corner and observed the men’s weapons. They all had automatic machine guns, but she noticed one of the grenades clipped on side of one of the men. Jess aimed her gun and concentrated on the grenade while breathing calmly. She let out a soft exhale and pulled the trigger. The grenade exploded and sent all the men flipping in all directions. The man’s body parts shot around the area and blood spattered on Carlos. He stood up angrily and looked around, but Jess and Faith ran from the shed and shot at the men.
“Jess!” Carlos yelled while shooting back.
Jess and Faith shot two of Carlos’s men and managed to shoot Carlos in the shoulder. Jess ran up to Carlos and kicked him down. Carlos immediately laughed and spit out blood.
“Oh, it’s good to see you Jess.”
“Shut up! How did you find us?”
“Oh. That was easy. We just followed! You guys weren’t that good at covered your tracks.”
“I should kill you right now!”
“Do it! You never could kill me anyways. We have a bond, you and I.”
Faith looked at Jess confusingly, but Jess didn’t look back, “Had a bond. You were like a brother to me.”
“Well, if I was thought of like a brother, then there should be no reason to keep me kissing you a secret.”
Carlos started laughing, “Oh, this is funny! You told no one? Damn, so where is your son? Sam teaching him how to slit throats yet?”
Jess gripped her gun hard and hit him across his cheek, “Don’t…you…dare!” Jess grunted emotionally.
Carlos stopped laughing when he heard her say that, “Jess…I-”
“Get up!”
Carlos struggled to get up, but Jess forced him to stand and grabbed both of his hands, “I’m not killing you.”
Carlos laughed, “I knew you didn’t have the guts!”
“Oh, I didn’t say you weren’t dying.”
Faith ran to the shed and came out with rope to tie around his hands. As she was tying him, Carlos kept moving his hands that prevented Faith from tying them.
“Stay still!” Faith grunted.
“Come on Faith! You must be tougher than that! What happened to you guys? This place made you soft!”
“Shut up!”
Jess pushed him inside one of the houses and pointed the gun at him. They just stared at one another. Faith couldn’t handle the tension that built between the two of them and walked out of the house.
“So, what now?” Carlos asked.
“Now you wait until Sam gets here. He’ll deal with you.”
“I can’t wait. He’s going to be pissed!”
Jess swung her gun across Carlos’s face and caused him to bleed, “What happened to you? Why did you go to that group?”
“I don’t know Jess. Maybe it deals with the fact that I was unnoticed in the group! Or could it be because I was in love with a girl who I couldn’t have?”
“You were never going to have me.”
“Well that’s a little rough, don’t you think?”
“No.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. They will find me. We are The Ancestors.”
“What?”
“The Ancestors. The gods of the new world. We will create the new life here once all the zombies are gone. We will survive!”
“And you want to kill everyone who’s not one of you.”
“Yes. That’s why I joined. I could survive. The world is already dead Jess. Join me.”
“You and your group are nothing more than just idiots who think they can kill everyone who’s not them. Me, Sam, all of us, we’re the wrong group to fuck with!”
“Then where are they? You’re vulnerable. You think because you killed a couple of men means that’s it? We’re a lot bigger than you.”
“So why bring very few men?”
“Because they would have killed everyone.”
“But isn’t that the point of joining them?”
Jess walked away and slammed the door behind her. Faith walked up to her in shock, “Jess…what was that?”
“He kissed me, but I pushed him away. Then he left the group. It was nothing.”
“What was he thinking?”
“I don’t know! I didn’t want to tell Sam because it meant nothing.”
“If it didn’t mean anything, then why didn’t you tell him?”
“I did tell him. He understands. Since it meant nothing, there was no reason for me to hide it.”
“Of course you did. Good.”
The radio sounded and alerted Jess to snatch it from her waist, “Christine?”
Jess, we’re at the safe spot. Is everything okay?
“Yes, it’s fine. How’s everyone?”
We’re okay, but we were attacked by zombies and…most of us didn’t make it. This are we found is kind of dangerous.
Jess sighs, “Okay. You stay there for a little while longer until I radio back okay?”
Okay. I’ll keep my radio close.
Jess clips her radio back on her waist and exhales quietly. Faith began to speak again, but shots fired at them and pierced Faith in her leg. She screamed and fell down the porch as Jess pulls out her gun and fired back. More men jumped the gate and rushed after them, but they pulled out their knives.
“We’re going to kill you slowly!”
“Faith, hold on!”
Jess fired and killed two men, but she ran out of bullets and grabbed her knife. The three men left stood in front of her and smiled, but Jess didn’t tremble not one bit.
“Your knife, so small. You have balls lady.”
“Bigger than yours apparently.”
One of the men rushed after her, but she grabbed his arm and cut him under his arms, slamming him into another one of the men and running after the third man. He swung at her, but she dodged the knife and forced the knife under his chin. She snatched the knife out, grabbed his knife from his dying hands, and threw her knife at one of the men. The knife stabbed him in his chest and the last man ran after her. He swung at her, but she managed to intercept their knives and push him away.
“You are one tough ass lady! I love it!”
“You’re sick!”
Jess ran up to him and kicked his knee inward, breaking his leg and watching him fall. She gripped her knife and stabbed the man in the chest multiple times. She sat over him afterwards and started crying. She’s tired of living her life by killing repeatedly. Especially humans. She stood up and started walking away, but Christine had a gun pointed towards her.
“Christine?”
She pulled the trigger and made Jess jump, but she didn’t get shot. It was the man with the small knife in his chest that had risen up and pointed a gun to her head. Christine along with other members from the camp had come to help and she was thankful it was now. Jess gasped and hugged Christine tight. The other members looked around to make sure no one else was there.
“Where’s Faith?” Jess asked.
“I thought she was with you?”
Jess looked where she put her down and she was gone. She looked at the blood trail and followed it around the house and up the gate. The men had taken Faith and Jess couldn’t do anything about it.
“No!” Jess screamed.
She ran into the house to speak to Carlos, but he was laying across the floor with a slit throat. Jess gagged and ran out of the house before puking on the ground. Christine and the others were frightened, but confused. Jess wiped her mouth and picked up her knife.
“They took Faith!”
“Who?”
“The men we’ve been dealing with since this all started. They found us!”
“How in the hell did they find us?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know, but we have to find them. They have Faith!”
“I know. Just…give me a second.”
“Who are they Sam?” Eddy asked.
“They are the people who created the virus. The ones we’ve been talking about.”
“Is everybody back at home…?”
“Most of them are fine. They went to the safe spot we discussed.”
“Wait, you said most!” Dexter responded.
“The others are dead.”
Dexter drops his head and walked away while Eddy chased after him. Sam squats down and covers his face while thinking of a plan. Christine noticed how bad the situation was due to Sam’s nervousness. He painted a hardcore type of person inside all their minds and to see him thoughtless made them lose hope.
“Hey, Dexter!” Eddy grabs his arm and slows him down.
“Eddy, I can’t keep losing people. We’ve been through too much together.”
“I know, but we’ll get through this. Sam will-”
“And that’s the thing. They came here and messed everything up. Now there’s a price on all our heads.”
“That’s not his fault. He tried to avoid it all. Tried to move on, but it’s that attitude that keeps him trapped in his old ways. The feeling of mistrust, fear, control. We can’t keep reminding him of those things. That’s why I’ve been trying to lighten the mood lately. Especially now. We’ve all lost people, that doesn’t put us in a more difficult situation than him.”
“I know. I just…I’m tired Eddy.”<
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Z Island Series (Book 2): War After Z Island Page 6
