The Z-Strain Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Morris, SJ

  “You can’t believe that Mom, can you? I don’t think anyone is safe anywhere anymore.” She turned and walked away in a huff.

  I had to let her go. I didn’t want to, but I knew I had to. Even if I went after her, I had no idea what I’d say because she was right. No one was safe in this world anymore it seemed. Walls or no walls, food or no food, something or someone would always be after us. My conversation with Allycia pretty much made up my mind. If I was going to make sure the people who were after me wouldn’t hurt anyone I loved, I had to leave. If they found this place and if I weren’t here, they’d have no reason to hurt anyone. I’m the one they want. Me and my stupid Z-Strain immune blood.

  Chapter 3

  I got Chris to the infirmary so Doc Baker could check him out. When Doc and Jasmine had everything under control with Chris, I figured I’d talk to Tyler and Dan to let them know we didn’t need the drone anymore.

  “So, Dan, about the drone.”

  “Yep, it’s up and running on its way up north to the first site, see.” Dan pointed to one of the monitors showing a bird’s eye view of the trees and hills just outside our walls.

  “Well, no need, Dan. Chris said it’s not a good idea. He said if there are people at the site, they’d most definitely follow the drone back to us, and that’s something none of us want,” I said defeated but not for the reason Dan, and Tyler would be thinking.

  Dan yelled out, “Holy shit!”

  We all looked at the screen, and our mouths fell open in unison. There were thousands of them. The infected were amassing into a considerable sized horde, and they looked to be heading right for us.

  “Where is this Dan?” I said with terror in my voice.

  “This is only ten minutes out. I literally just sent the drone up and came back down here to watch the video on the big screen,” Dan replied, still gawking at the monitor.

  Turning to run to the infirmary, I yelled, “We have to tell everyone to get inside and be quiet. They’ll pass us by if they don’t know we’re here. That’s what we did at Chuck’s store!”

  I grabbed Chris and everyone downstairs, but I couldn’t find Troy. He must’ve been outside with his test subjects. I knew I had to find him and fast. Chris hobbled his way upstairs and told everyone he could find about the lockdown and the incoming horde. I ran outside to locate Troy and made sure I told everyone I came across to get inside.

  I found Troy right where I expected him to be.

  I whispered, not knowing how close the infected were, “Troy, we have to get inside. There’s a huge herd of infected heading right for us. We have to go now.”

  Just then, the smell hit me, and I knew they were closer than any of us would’ve hoped they’d be. Leaving his wriggling, infected subjects behind, Troy walked briskly toward the cabin. “Aren’t Tom, Lance and a bunch of others clearing infected from the front gates and burning them outside the walls?” he asked.

  “Oh no, Lance!” I forgot all about the pain in my ribs and ran as fast as I possibly could for the house. I found Chris locking down the windows, and I grabbed him as I gasped for breath.

  “Lance…Tom…others…burning bodies.” I managed to get out between strained breaths.

  Chris ran to the door where we had dropped his gear, pulled out his radio, and yelled into it, “Tom, come in. You have to get to home base now! There’s a mass of infected heading right for us. Get inside now!”

  At first, there was nothing but dead air, and I feared the absolute worst. Finally, the radio keyed up. “We’re already cut off from the front gate. I’ve got everyone on the ATV with me, and we’re heading south away from them now.” Tom’s voice said over the wind.

  “Abby, we have to check the front gate,” Chris said with alarm in his eyes.

  I ran faster than Chris and his bruised ankle, so I got to the main gate before him and listened. I didn’t have to listen too carefully to tell the infected were pounding on the gate. I guess they’d already figured out there was food on the other side.

  “They’re trying to get inside, Chris. I can hear them shaking the fence. It won’t be long before they start piling up on it and either break it down or they’ll able to climb over each other to reach the top. We have to do something and now.” I said a little louder than I wanted to as the loud moans from the throng of infected reminded me that sound was our enemy. Or was it…

  “Chris, if we can get around to another side of the fence that isn’t surrounded yet and get to some of the ATV’s hidden out in the woods, maybe we can draw the infected away from the cabin. Since they’re drawn to sound as a group, we might be able to draw them all in another direction so Lance, Tom and everyone else can get back to the cabin.”

  “That might just work, but are you okay to be running around? You sounded like your lungs were going to explode earlier.”

  “I’m fine. My adrenaline kicked in, and I’m feeling no pain. Let’s go,” I lied already running to the rear of the property.

  I made it to one of the platforms with a ladder we’d built a while ago to hold the additional solar panels and started climbing. I peeked over the edge and saw only a few infected mulling around. I looked down to Chris who had just made it to the ladder.

  “There aren’t many over here. If I go over the wall, I can climb over the outside fence and make it to the ATVs. Give me your vest to put over the barbed wire so I don’t get torn up going over.” I whispered.

  “I don’t think you should go, Abby. You’re going to get hurt even worse than you already are. I’m not willing to risk that.”

  “Thanks, but you don’t really have a choice in the matter. I’m the only one who can go out there and walk among the dead without any fear of being eaten. Until you can say the same, it’s going to be me. They don’t want anything to do with me. Now, give me your vest…please.” I said with a sly smile, knowing I’d won the argument. Even if it was because I was infected, I still won.

  He admitted defeat with a bitter face as he tossed me his vest.

  “Fine, here.”

  With my ribs screaming in pain, I slowly climbed down over the cement block wall. Adrenalin or not, they hurt like hell. I made it down quietly, and the infected in the area were still wandering aimlessly ignoring me. I painfully tucked Chris’ vest up under my bad arm and used my good arm to pull myself up the chain link fence. Climbing fences was so much easier when I was a kid. I made it almost to the top before tossing the vest over the barbed wire. I climbed over with no incident other than tearing my pants a little, but I was okay. I walked slowly between the trees as the infected continued to ignore me.

  I was glad I didn’t leave my bedroom without a knife anymore. Always be prepared was my new motto. I was going to use this opportunity to kill as many of these undead menaces as I could. I walked up to each of them and slipped my knife into their ear or, in some cases, where their ears used to be. I killed about fifteen before I made it to the ATV’s we had hidden in the woods for circumstances just like this. Well, more for human assaults but hey, this occasion fit too. I grabbed the radio from the ATV and keyed it up.

  “Dan, this is Abby. Fly the drone to the northeast part of the property. When you see me, turn on the siren, and we’ll lead this herd to Lovers Pass, over.”

  Understanding my plan immediately, Dan yelled, “Copy that, Abby!”

  Lovers Pass was a popular lookout spot a few miles away. People used to park their cars to sightsee over the edge of the sheer cliff that led to a three-hundred-foot drop with jagged rocks and white-water rapids below. There was a guardrail so no one could easily drive off, but with the number of infected I was hoping to have trailing me, a guardrail wasn’t going to matter. They would just push each other over the railing and down the cliff to splatter below. It was the only idea I had, and I was going to roll with it.

  I started up the ATV and revved the engine to get the interest of the surrounding infected. They gladly pointed all of their attention to the loud four-wheeler. I did a quick circle a
round my new groupies, and I was off.

  Weaving in and out of the trees was a pain in the ass, but it was much easier than dodging the infected that were now coming at me from every direction because of the roar from the ATV’s engine. I broke the tree line and headed for a dirt access road I knew was a shortcut to Lovers Pass.

  A few minutes after, I heard the buzz of the drone behind me. I looked to the sky just as the siren started. It was a sight to see, hundreds of infected all turning almost in unison right in my direction. They collectively moaned, turned, and rushed towards the blaring siren. I’m pretty sure I pissed myself.

  The sheer number of them was astounding, and I couldn’t even see all of them because most were still coming from the tree-lined road. Hell, they were coming from everywhere. At least, my plan was working.

  I continued slowly but realized that Chris was quite right. They did seem to be getting faster. I had to speed up a few times to avoid getting swarmed by them. Ignoring me, they reached for the ATV, and the hundreds of milky white eyes, rotting faces, and bloodied arms or pieces of arms reaching at me were absolutely terrifying. I already knew I was going to have nightmares for the rest of my life, but this scene was now going to be in every one of them. The moaning was so loud I almost couldn’t hear the sound of the drones’ siren blaring overhead.

  And the smell, oh my gosh, the smell. It took me back to when we were on the roof at Chuck’s store and surrounded by thousands of shuffling undead. The nostril-burning stench of rotting, rancid meat and feces was overwhelming. It took everything I had to pay attention to where I was going and not vomit. Just as I was about to lose my stomach’s contents, the radio keyed up.

  “Abby, there are thousands of them following the drone. Get out of there now; the cliff is coming up quick!” Dan’s voice screamed over the excited moans of the dead behind me.

  “I’ve got a plan. You aren’t going to like it, so I’m not telling you what it is, but I’ve got this!” I yelled into the radio as I sped up.

  Looking to my right, I saw a sign for Lovers Pass, and I hit the accelerator, throwing me back in the seat. I drove the ATV in a wide arc so I could check behind me, I was right. The infected were more interested in the ATV than the drone. The siren from the drone was bringing more to me, but the infected out in front that were leading the pack, they were following me. If I turned off, so would they. The crappy plan I’d hoped not to have to use was going to be my only play, so I went for it.

  I screamed a feral war cry. Feeling like a badass, and I pushed the ATV as fast as it could go, right for the guardrail. Seconds before impact, I grabbed the radio, said a quick prayer to a God I don’t believe in, and jumped.

  Chapter 4

  The ATV must have been going at least 40 miles an hour when I jumped, and I didn’t time my dismount as well as I could have. I ended up rolling on the ground a few times before bouncing off one of the guardrail posts, rolling underneath the railing, and then flipping head over feet towards the edge of the cliff. After my little tumbling act, I was still going pretty fast sliding on my ass towards the edge. I managed to use my hands, digging down into the loose dirt and ripping through shrubs to slow myself down as the ATV flipped end over end after it hit the guardrail and erupted into a fireball midair to my right.

  The heat was tremendous, and the sound of the explosion caused a ringing in my ears that drowned out my own screams of panic. I finally caught myself on what looked to be an old piece of guardrail embedded in the cliff’s side. I held on as tightly as I could. I instantly began kicking my feet, trying to find some sort of foothold. I was attempting to gain traction to be able to push myself back up with, but my feet found nothing more than loose dirt. I gave one last hard kick of my legs and was finally able to get my arm wrapped all the way around the metal rail, keeping me from the same fate as the infected that were now nose-diving all around me to the rocks and rapids below.

  The fire from the ATV poured down the side of the cliff next to me almost all the way to the bottom of the gorge. The undead, falling and slamming into the side of the cliff, exploding dark contaminated blood and tumbling to the watery rocks below never seemed to stop. I was dangling on the side of the cliff for what seemed like forever, but finally, when the ringing in my ears ceased, I could hear the siren of the drone still blaring above me. I looked up, and through the smoke, I could see its lights flashing violently. I knew I had grabbed the radio before I jumped, but I didn’t remember what happened to it after I slammed into the ground and everything else. I just held myself, arm locked around the rail, and closed my eyes hoping this horrible experience would be over soon.

  Watching the infected still pouring over the edge, and away from the cabin, I contemplated letting go, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do that to everyone back at the cabin. I couldn’t let myself die. I wouldn’t give up that easy. So, I waited. Through the severe pain, I waited. I knew if I could survive everything that led me up to this point, then I could survive whatever happened next.

  It felt like hours, but I knew it was probably only a matter of minutes before the overwhelming number of dead falling overhead finally started to slow. I could now hear the radio keying up above my head.

  “Abby! Abby! I see you, and we’re coming for you! Hold on!” It sounded like Dan’s voice but with everything going on; I couldn’t be sure.

  The drone, its siren still blaring, hovered about 10 feet away from me, and then it took off. I heard someone calling my name, and it took almost everything I had left to yell back at them. When I did, my entire chest felt like it was going to implode. My previously broken ribs were now quite possibly shattered into pieces and very well might be puncturing holes in my lungs with the pressure I felt in my chest.

  At that very moment, I never wanted to die as much as I did just then. Even while being tortured by Liam’s goons, I never wanted the painlessness of death to come as badly as I did now. The pain was beyond excruciating, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could take before passing out. Just as my vision started to blur, a massive arm reached over the edge of the cliff above me. Whoever it was reached over my head, grabbed the back of my shirt, and started pulling. I released my grip on the railing, and all went black.

  I slowly awoke to the bright sun on my face. There was hard, rocky dirt underneath me, and someone thumping on my chest and yelling my name. Everything almost came into focus, but the ringing in my ears made it sound like I was underwater. Then the sharp stabbing in my chest returned as a large fist slammed into me again, and I groaned. The huge figure hugged me, and I screamed in pain at the strong, vise-like grip.

  “Oh my God, Abby, I’m so sorry. Where are you hurt the worst?” A deep male voice asked.

  “My… chest…punctured…lung,” was all I could get out as a reply before blacking out again.

  This time I woke up to muted light, soft sheets underneath me, and the pain was no longer severe. When my vision finally focused, I looked around, and I was in a basement of some sort with bandages and surgical tools all around me. I had an IV in my arm, and I followed the tubing to a bag of beautiful, magical morphine dangling from a wire hanger hooked over a nail in the cement wall. I looked down as much as I could at myself to see I was right, my lung was punctured, and I had a chest tube sticking out of the sheets covering my naked body. I lifted my left arm, since it hurt the least, to find it bandaged tightly with clean gauze. I lifted the light sheet that was draped over my broken body. I was a mess. I had bandages everywhere, and where there weren’t any bandages, I saw red and black dried blood smeared with dirt. I dropped the sheet and rested my arm back on the bed with a sigh of relief that I was still alive. I had no idea where I was, but I was alive.

  I closed my eyes and had just started to drift off to sleep when I heard heavy boots coming towards me. I kept my eyes closed just in case the person who helped me wasn’t someone I knew. I had to keep the element of surprise if this individual meant me harm. Then my savior spoke.

  “Oh, Abby, I
didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” a familiar voice said softly as he sat at my bedside gently clasping my hand.

  It couldn’t be.

  I now kept my eyes closed, not out of self-preservation but out of disbelief. I felt the man’s head rest gently on the top of my wrist, and I opened my eyes slowly.

  It was him…it was Jack.

  “Jack?” I questioned softly.

  “Abby, you’re awake! I’m so glad you’re up. You’re going to be okay. Just don’t move around a lot. You’re pretty banged up, and you’ve got a chest tube in,” Jack said with a huge smile on his face.

  I reacted by lifting my good arm up and slapping him hard across the face. I was sorry the second I did it, but at the same time, I wasn’t. Jack left us. He had left our children and me. All this time we thought he was dead, but the bastard was alive and well. He was just off playing soldier.

  “Are you fucking kidding me, Jack? How are you alive? How are you here?” I barked out my questions at him. I was trying to yell as loudly as I could, but with the pain growing tighter in my chest from the broken pieces of my body as well as my now shattered heart, it was difficult to get my voice any higher than a choking murmur.

  “Wow, Abby. I guess I expected that but whoa do you hit hard,” he replied with his signature crooked smile.

  I was in pain, but I was angry, and thanks to the morphine dulling most of my discomfort, I was able to lay into him getting out every word that rushed into my head, “You’re damn straight you should’ve expected that. You had us believing you were dead all this time! How dare you? After everything the kids and I have been through, and this is the time you decide to show up? The kids and I drove up here not really knowing what was going on. There were a few times where I was worried we weren’t going to make it here at all. I was kidnapped, tortured, and infected with some crazy virus that makes me indiscernible to the undead. I had to find my way home through thousands of zombies to get back to our kids. Remember, our kids? Allycia, Tyler, and Lance. You know the children we had together…or have together, sorry I forgot…you aren’t dead.”