Z.E.D.S. Series (Book 1): Z.E.D.S. Rising

by Botts, Bradley

  We all looked at each other and all had the same thought.

  “You wouldn’t understand mister.”

  He took a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it. He took a long drag and exhaled the smoke from his lungs.

  “Try me. I’ve been around a long time and I can just about accept anything.”

  I got closer to him and shook his hand.

  “My name is Atlas and these are my friends, Mark, Justin and my cousin Brock.”

  I paused for a moment and debated on telling him our nature of being there. I realized to not be embarrassed for what we do considering we are trying to be ready for worst case scenario that can save lives.

  “We are training here for the zombie apocalypse. We are the Z.E.D.S.”

  The man had a look on his face that seemed as if he understood.

  “You’re prepping for zombies. That is very interesting. What does Z.E.D.S. stand for exactly?”

  Mark answered, “Zombie Eliminating Defense Squad sir.”

  The man chuckled behind his hand as he wiped the sweat off of his face.

  “Doesn’t that mean you’re going to defend the elimination of zombies? That’s what it sounds like to me.”

  I realized what he was talking about and laughed.

  “There should be an H after the E so you can say Zombie Eliminating Human Defense Squad. But I can see why you didn’t do that. It wouldn’t look right. So I wouldn’t change it either.”

  He threw his cigarette down to the ground, stomped on it and extended his hand once again.

  “My name is Brian Reynolds. I’m a doomsday prepper. My means to an end is nuclear holocaust. How are each of you set up on your bug out bags?”

  Brian was a man we’ve seen many times and never talked to. We just thought he was a lonely old man who wondered around everywhere just by the way he looked. He was actually like us. He was a prepper but for a different apocalypse. The more we talked to the man the more he informed us of the things we needed. He helped us build our survival kits and trained us on gun control. He trained us from weapon assembly to outside living. He knew what plants were eatable in the woods and what to stay away from. Brian showed us how to make your own alarm systems from scratch to go around our perimeter for a safe house. Brian also taught us how to hunt and clean the meat to make sure it wasn’t tainted. Each day we ventured to the range he was there providing us with different knowledge. One day he took us to his bunker that nested underneath his barn. He had food supply to sustain life for many years and its own water filtration system along with multiple generators for electricity. We had even brought Shaun with us to visit the bunker.

  “Brian, how long have you been a prepper?”

  “I became a prepper when I got back from Vietnam. I saw what people are capable of and I want to make sure I can survive whatever the leaders of this world can throw my way.”

  Brian stayed with us all the days we ventured to the range for almost two years. During our summer vacation there was one day he didn’t show. We went to see if he was at his house or in his bunker, but we couldn’t find him anywhere. When we arrived at the range the next day we found out that he had passed away two nights before. The man knew how to survive a disaster but could not put down his cigarettes. Justin’s cousin that worked at the range behind the desk approached us at Brian’s funeral. He had a wooden box in his hands and a note attached to the top with Z.E.D.S. written across it.

  “Hey kids. Brian was a good man. I thought he was a little crazy for believing in a doomsday, but he seemed to like you kids. He always told me he thought of you four as his own sons. He left this on my desk for me to give to you.”

  I grabbed the box and handed it to Brock. I opened the letter and inside it read.

  Hey ZEDS,

  When I first discovered you guys at the shooting range I thought you were a bunch of kids wanting to play with guns so I kept a close eye on you. That’s what an old man is supposed to do. Make sure the younger generation lives to carry on the world that we so called senior citizens leave behind. Well I approached you guys to find out exactly why you were there and behold yah were just like me. You guys had a passion in you to save the world as I do. We may have had a different outlook on which way to go about that but our intentions were of the same concept. I looked forward to all the days I was giving you knowledge on how to survive and I enjoyed our hikes together. My own kids didn’t believe in what I did but you guys did. I thought of you guys as my own children. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my illness. I didn’t want sympathy from preppers when they should only be focused on one thing which is being prepared for whatever comes their way. So for you guys I leave you this box. This box contains six really important items. These items are of grave importance to each of you. They are very important to me and I know they will be very important to you. The first item I leave will go to Brock. He seemed the most skeptical about what you do but was trying to accept it just as much as each of you believed in it. So I leave him my crucible necklace. Brock, don’t ever be ashamed of what you believe in. Faith will help keep you alive. The second item I leave in this box is to Justin. It’s my old army zippo I carried with me through Vietnam. You have a spark in you that will never die. Just like this zippo you are wind proof. You will shine your abilities on everything around you and will carry the torch of your organization no matter what the future holds. The third item I leave is to Mark. Mark you seem to have a strong head on your shoulders and I want you to always think with it so I leave you my bandana. I wore it every night in Vietnam because I knew if it was still there then my head was still on my shoulders. You are strong willed and always seemed to be the strategic one. Your mind is your strongest attribute and your control over it will always allow your mind to never play tricks on you. The fourth item I leave is to Atlas. Atlas you are the leader of the group. Your team accepts you and you are a natural born leader. I can see it in your eyes. You have the capabilities to do anything in this world. You are the one that will keep society alive. So with that being said I leave you my Winchester Blade. I also carried this item with me everywhere I ventured no matter if it was overseas or on this soil. You can tell a lot about a man by the knife he carries and this knife tells me that you will do anything for anyone and nothing will step in your way.

  Now the other two items in this box is a set of keys and the deed to the lot my bunker is encased in. I couldn’t leave this to my kids because they would just have it demolished thinking I was an old coot. So I leave it to each of you. All of your names are on the deed and my lawyer found some loop holes to where your age doesn’t matter about owning land. The property has been paid for up to a decade so you won’t have to worry about the government trying to take it away from you. Now this bunker will not be your first safe house. Since I have had the pleasure of teaching you what I know I would like for you to build your own someday. If the time comes before you can build your own and you need it then I will not judge you.

  I love you boys as if you were my own sons and I am very happy I got to know you before I was put 6 feet under. I hope you boys don’t experience what you are preparing for, but if you do I know you will be prepared. If Shaun is with you I didn’t forget about him. That boy made me laugh harder than my brothers in the war. He is a boy who knew his way around things. So for him there is a compass that I never took off my neck so that way I never lost my way. So now there should be 7 items in the box.

  Well boys, I bid you farewell from this life and I will see you in the next. Take care of yourselves and I’m sorry I won’t be next to you kicking ass. You guys are going to be the symbol hope that is going to cascade the entire human race. Don’t ever forget that.

  Sincerely,

  The old man in the superhero shirts.

  We each gripped our items left behind for us by our departed friend and guide. We knew he was sick, but we didn’t mention it to him because he didn’t mention it to us. He was a wise man and a wonderful teacher. I have kept his lette
r with me every day since that day. Even when I enlisted that letter went with me. It kept me strong because I knew I had to do him proud.

  We ventured to his bunker and slowly wondered around the inside of it with dead silence of knowing he was gone. This man left us with the things he held most precious and everything in there was left for us. His old war medals, pictures of his unit across the walls, his entire life’s work was now ours. The pictures we found of his kids were placed at each of their doorsteps because we knew they would want those rather than us keeping them. There was another picture hanging above his encased gun collection sitting on a makeshift mantle. The picture was of all of us. I remember that day. Brian had just finished teaching us how to tie our own knots for traps and a bystander at the range asked him if we were his kids.

  Brian didn’t hesitate and said, “Yes. These are my four sons.”

  Brian then pulled out a camera from his bag and asked the man to take a picture of all of us. I never seen that man smile so big the entire time I knew him. In that moment I knew he was truly happy.

  As we searched around the bunker again we found a box of paint cans and brushes near a wall underneath a table. We went outside and looked at the entire barn that encased our home away from home. We each took a paint brush decided to paint a Z on each wall outside the barn. This had now become our secondary safe house.

  In Order of the ZEDS

  The gravel was spraying the road behind us as we approached the safe house. Selest and Ophelia were standing in front of the door waiting for Brock and Chase to come back but no one had made contact with either of him since we all parted. Their eyes were blood shot from the tears they had created from the fear of Brock and Chase’s possible fate. Ophelia kept gasping for air searching for the other truck. Shaun stepped towards Ophelia and led her to the side as I approached Selest and I extended my arms to her.

  “Listen to me. Brock is fine. We will find him and we will bring him home. Do you understand me?”

  She nodded her head while wiping the tears off of her face.

  “He is stronger than I am and more capable of surviving anything in this world than the rest of us. Don’t lose faith.”

  I put my arm around her waist and led her back inside as my brothers picked up Sarah from the truck bed and carried her behind the safe house. Shaun led Ophelia back inside the door while allowing her to lean on him. My dad and Lauren stood outside the door holding Jackson staring at our building. I don’t know if they were searching for more answers to this day or if they finally felt safe. Logan walked outside and asked them to come in so they can secure the door.

  I stopped just inside the door and took my arm off of Selest.

  “Try and get some rest Selest. We’re going to find him. Shaun, come here.”

  Shaun walked over to me while handing Ophelia’s hand to Selest and telling them to go to a different room.

  “I’m going to wrap Sarah in a blanket out back. Tell Piper, Kevin and Tyler to please start digging a grave for her. When we get back we will hold a ceremony for her. Then I need you to get the rest of the teams together. We are going on another rescue mission.”

  Shaun steps away and begins gathering the entire team for another meeting. My dad walks over to me with Lauren and places his arm on my shoulder.

  “You built all of this, son?”

  He seemed astonished of what I was truly capable of and I couldn’t help but smile.

  “Yes. We all did, A very wise man we met a long time ago gave us the basic floor plan, but we all came together and constructed it.”

  Lauren and my dad had a smile on their face and with a whimper and precious crackle they said, “Thank you God.”

  I walked to our meeting room and met the rest of our faction to discuss another rescue plan for our family.

  “As of 0200 hours we lost contact with Team Eagle. Brock and Chase went radio silent and we have no idea why. We all know they were on a search and rescue mission for others families including their own. We know the direction they went but we don’t know how far they had made it. That means we have to go back out there and find them. We need two volunteers to make another team.”

  Seth and Emmitt both rise to their feet.

  Seth crossed his arms and spoke with anger, “Brock is our cousin. He is our flesh and blood. Chase has always been a good friend of mine, ever since I met him teaching Sunday school at New Liberty. Ophelia deserves to get her husband back and Selest needs to know Brock like we have. Emmitt and I will take on the responsibility of helping to find them.”

  “Good. You two will be named Team Red Hill.”

  Red Hill comes from the street my brothers and I grew up on. We were thick as thieves back in those days. We were called the Red Hill Brotherhood. Team Red Hill seemed fitting for two of my brothers.

  “David, we’re short one truck at the moment. I wouldn’t ask if I really didn’t need it.”

  “It’s okay. Take my car.”

  “Thank you. Now let’s all take a moment of silence for our fallen friend Sarah. She risked her life for everyone in the other room including my own. If it weren’t for her it was possible that we wouldn’t have been able to find our families in that house.”

  We all bowed our heads to show respect for Sarah. She sacrificed herself for all of us. She was a childhood friend and it truly saddens me to know that she is gone. After our silence it was back to our mission.

  “Now Piper, get them a hand held please and Justin install one of our CB’s into the car. The sooner we get back out there the percentage rate of finding them is greater.”

  Everyone scattered from the room and Sloan approached me before I exited.

  “I should be joining you guys out there. I don’t want to just stay here and hope my brothers are safe without me.”

  “Sloan, I wouldn’t let you go out there right now even if you had volunteered before Emmitt and Seth. You’re the one that showed me most of the back roads around here. I need you to be the navigator for all of us. You can tell us every road to take while we are out there. I need you at this radio guiding us down every road we take.”

  “Okay, which way did Brock and Chase head when they left?”

  “They headed North East of here towards The Shade. They never made contact after they left this road. I need the quickest way to get there.”

  “Where do you keep the maps?”

  I pointed towards the table alongside the wall. Sloan walked over to it and began shuffling through all of the different types of maps.

  I stepped to the ammo closet and began resupplying my guns. As I stared at my 9mm I began thinking of the memory that had appeared in my head back at the barricade.

  It was triple digit heat in the desert that day. The civilians trapped inside the burning compound couldn’t escape because each exit was blocked by the rebels trying to kill me and Captain Riggs while protecting the bio weapon we were sent to destroy. My captain had orders to retreat but we knew that we couldn’t just leave and allow every innocent person in the limits to burn alive.

  “Screw it. We save as many as we can and get out now!”

  We raced to the wall and began shooting each of the Tango’s. The compound was burning and we could hear screams of women and men inside the walls. We broke through the wall and busted down one of the doors. People ran frantically passed us screaming and pushing each other. A rebel came from one of the sides of the compound and began firing. I was struck in the arm by one of the bullets and a couple of civilians were shot and killed before Captain Riggs put him down with a single shot. He ran to me and helped me to my feet.

  “Come on Atlas. We need to go now.”

  As we were able to reach the opening of the wall, a sniper fired a shot from a distance and Captain Riggs fell to the ground with blood pouring from his head. I ducked behind the wall while dragging him with me. I placed my fingers on his neck and tried to find his pulse but it was gone. He lied there bleeding onto the hot sand and I was stuck with low ammo an
d nowhere to go. I looked around me and saw a 22 rifle with a scope placed next to a dead rebel. I knew if I didn’t pursue the sniper I was going to die next to Captain Riggs. I took three deep breaths and grabbed the rifle. I placed my helmet onto the barrel of the gun and partially showed it in the opening of the wall. I heard the snipers gun fire and waited for the bullet to penetrate my helmet. The bullet pushed through and stuck into the wall of the compound. With the time from the sound of the rifle to the connection of the bullet to my helmet I realized he was about two hundred yards out directly in front of the wall. I set the scope for two hundred yard sights.

  I still remember my prayer from that moment.

  “God, I need your guidance of my rifle to my enemy. I need your protection to make it home. I may be a lost soul of this world but I am a soldier of a good cause. My damnation shouldn’t approach me on this day. My salvation waits after this day. Please Lord, forgive me for what I am about to do. The reign of terror ends with me today. Guide my rifle and the bullet that exits the barrel.”

  “Atlas!”

  Sloan’s voice snapped me out of my trance.

  “Since they were headed towards Highway 90 this is the road they probably took. You need to follow this road until you reach The Shade. If there is any trouble you can take one of these three roads that will lead you back here. These roads are less populated and you’re more likely not to run into any trouble.”

  “Thank you Sloan.”

  Sloan pulled me in and hugged me tightly.

  “You be careful out there. If you do encounter anything to where you need my help, I will find a way to be there.”

  I gave Sloan a reassured pat on the back. I gripped the Desert Eagle from my side and placed it on a shelf in the closet considering I didn’t have any ammo for it. I gripped the 12 gauge shotgun from the rack and placed the strap across my shoulders. I loaded a clip into my Beretta and I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Selest with a frightened look in her eyes.

  “Atlas, bring him back to me.”