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

by Botts, Bradley

  I pulled his picture from my pocket and handed it to Shaun.

  “Keep that safe.”

  I limped to roof hatch of the building with the rest of them following behind me, Zora walked up beside me and explained the situation.

  “From what I could tell it’s actually pretty vacant in there. I opened the door and didn’t see or hear anything inside so we may be fine. They could have blocked it off at the beginning.”

  I looked inside the hole and saw the yellow ladder that connected the roof to the floor that was located behind the sporting goods counter. I dropped a flare down inside the hole to be aware of any close presence that could be there. Nothing ventured to eyesight so I started down the ladder first and the others followed behind me. The electricity was out but thanks to the skylights installed on the roof we had plenty of light. There wasn’t any person or any zombie in sight. The store seemed to be untouched by anything. I stood in front of the glass casing that protected knives, binoculars and scopes while telling everyone what needed to be done.

  “We need Mark and Brock to go to the grocery section and grab all the food that will fit in your bags. Mostly can foods with long shelf life. Zora and Shaun will go find camping and hunting gear such as sleeping bags, lanterns, flashlights, batteries and anything else that we can use. Logan and I will grab the arsenal around here in the sporting goods section. If anything goes wrong you run back here and get to the roof. We will have another thirty minute session to grab and go.”

  Each team went in their separate directions as Logan and I began loading up the ammo and extra guns that were displayed behind the counter. We ventured down each section of the sporting goods grabbing anything extra we could find such as 300 pound pressure bass fishing line, compasses, weather proof shelters and ponchos. I began to head down another isle and I started hearing faint footsteps. I grabbed a rear view mirror off of the shelf and gripped it tightly while using it to look down the aisle next to me. I saw a reflection of a figure slowly moving towards me with a twisted ankle and a grocery bag tied to its wrist. I stepped around the corner and raised my Beretta towards it.

  “Excuse me. If you are alive please say something.”

  The figure stopped and raised its head. Its eyes were full of evil and blood was dripping from its head. The stench coming from this thing was unbearable. Another smell caught my sense and it was of oil while the other scent smelled of fertilizer. This person had walked through the automotive section as well as lawn and garden. I don’t know if all of that happened before or after they turned but my gun was of no use here considering my bullet could set this place on fire from the oil drenched zombie. It was a walking bomb with a motorcycle helmet attached to it.

  “Come one you ugly creature. Follow me this way.”

  I kept its attention on me as I led it to the back of the store where an employee entrance existed. I grabbed a baseball bat while venturing down an aisle with it and once we got behind the double doors I swung my bat to its head. It stumbled across the ground and I ran back outside the double doors. Placing the baseball bat in the handles I locked the doors together. I ran back to the counter and leaped over it. I heard more faint footsteps coming my way so I gripped the Desert Eagle that was attached to my lower back and pointed it to my right as I pointed my Beretta to my left. My legs began to shake from not knowing what was heading in my direction. I didn’t know if it were my teammates or more zombies looking for food. I had the duffle bag around my shoulders ready to go find my teammates in case I had too. Sweat was dripping from my forehead and I had both index fingers on a trigger.

  “Atlas!”

  I look to the right and saw Mark and Zora coming around the aisles. Logan appeared to my left looking at us confused with the screaming.

  While trying to catch his breath Mark said, “We have to go now.”

  Logan ran behind the counter to us as Shaun and Brock appeared to the left side breathing heavily also.

  Brock grabbed my arm and said, “They are coming. The glass on one of the doors is broken and they came barging in. They are headed this way.”

  Zora and Shaun started climbing the ladder first. I looked behind us and heard things falling off of shelves and loud footsteps heading our way. We knew there wasn’t much time and we all probably weren’t going to make it up the ladder without someone staying behind to fight.

  I looked at Brock as he had his gun aimed forward and said, “You get your ass to that roof now. Logan, Mark and I can hold them off.”

  Brock had a pissed off look on his face.

  “No. I’m staying down here with you guys and we will all go up there together.”

  I pushed Brocks gun down to face the floor and said, “Listen, we are all going up there but you can get up there now while we hold them off. There won’t be such a fight getting up the ladder if you go ahead and go.”

  Brock hesitated for a minute and then placed his gun in his holster. He gripped the ladder and began ascending to the roof. When Brock reached the top of the ladder I noticed the area became quiet. I turned around and saw that we were surrounded on all sides. Logan and Mark had guns aimed towards all of them waiting to see the best way to eliminate all of them. The zombies seemed like they were planning a way to attack us also as we waited. They had faint looks in their eyes and one idea in mind. Our bodies were going to be their wonderful feast of the day.

  I glanced at Logan and Mark while they stood there frozen like a statue.

  “Light them up guys.”

  Our triggers were pulled and our guns began pushing bullets out. The zombies let out loud eerie roars when we began firing. One by one they were falling, but we didn’t have enough time to keep reloading our weapons and killing each one of them. I was shooting forward, Mark was shooting left and Logan was shooting right.

  While pulling my assault rifle to the front of me I yelled, “We have go to get the hell out of here right now! Mark. Logan. Start climbing the ladder; it’s our only way out! I will hold them off!”

  Logan and Mark yelled, “Hell no bub. If you don’t go we don’t go!”

  I looked around to see if there was any sign of clearing but the floors were still overrun. A smell came across my nostrils and I recognized the smell. I surveyed the hoard and I saw my fertilized oil covered zombie trying to make its way through the hoard spreading oil on all the cannibals. I stopped shooting and reached into my duffel bag.

  Logan yelled, “What are you doing?”

  I pulled out a pipe bomb and tried to light it on fire. I hear gun shots coming from above me and I see Brock coming back down the ladder shooting his gun.

  “You guys are taking too damn long.”

  He stood next to me killing the zombies in front of me and I was finally able to light the pipe bomb on fire. I smiled and yelled to everyone.

  “Fire in the hole!”

  I tossed it towards the fertilized zombie and he became a human fireball. We all ducked down behind the counter covering our ears. A loud boom penetrated through our hands and into our ears. Our hands did not silence much of the blast, but they did do their job. A little hazy from the loud noise, we rose from behind the counter and saw the drifters all across the floor. Some of them were still burning and others were crawling around without legs. A portion of them began to rise back up where they were too far in the back to have direct contact with the blast.

  “Get up the ladder, before they get back up. Let’s get out of here.”

  Brock headed up the ladder as Mark and Logan followed behind him. I kept my aim on the zombies until they reached the roof top. I scaled the ladder to the roof and looked down in the hole. Zombies began surrounding the bottom of the ladder and Brock had another pipe bomb in his hand. I lit the fuse, he dropped it in the middle of the mob and I shut the hatch door. The explosion was loud but faint. We ran across the roof to the side of the building and jumped onto the truck. We each stepped onto the hood and leaped down to the pavement. We ran across the pavement to the grassy hillsi
de and stood on top of the hill. We all noticed our truck was surrounded by figures roaming around the truck.

  Logan reloaded his gun and said, “Damn, we can catch a break can we.”

  We ran across the road and noticed that our truck wasn’t surrounded by zombies but people. They were wearing makeshift duct tape armor and had rifles in their hands. One of them had the door open trying to hot wire the truck while the others stood guard. We ran up to them with our guns aimed.

  As we got closer to them I yelled, “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

  The six guys aimed their guns at us.

  The guy inside of the truck stepped out, walked forward and with a strong country accent he asked, “Is this fine truck yours?”

  With my gun aimed I answered, “Yes it is. If you guys walk away from it we will forget about all of this and you can go cow tipping or do whatever it is that you guys like to do.”

  They all started laughing condescendingly.

  “What makes yah think we are afraid of any of yah?”

  I pulled back the hammer on my gun and said, “My bullets don’t think twice about killing someone and right now I don’t either.”

  The man smiled and said, “That’s your one liner you want to be remembered by. Well I hope you feel great about those last words. Screw these guys.”

  I pulled the trigger on my gun and sent a bullet to the back of his head. He fell to the ground and blood spilled onto the asphalt. Before his friends could figure out what just happened Logan, Mark, Brock, Shaun and Zora fired their guns filling each of them with hot lead. We searched their bodies, took their guns and placed them on back of the truck. We left their bodies lying on the blacktop. We climbed back into the truck and I felt no remorse for leaving them cooking in the sun because like zombies they had no respect for human life. Call it wishful thinking but I hoped zombies would have found their bodies and ripped them to shreds.

  I looked at Shaun and said, “Come on man. Let’s go home.”

  I looked out my window and starred at the body of the men we had just killed. Shaun began driving and I noticed something flying in the sky. Mark looked out the window and saw the same thing I did.

  “What is that?”

  Shaun stopped the truck and we all turned around to watch the object soaring through the sky. At an incredible rate the object connected to the ground and a loud explosion followed behind it with a large dust cloud spreading through the streets coming towards us.

  Logan turned around and yelled, “Oh my God. Go, go, go, go, GO!”

  Shaun pressed on the gas and our tires squealed across the asphalt. I kept looking behind us and I saw the dust cloud was approaching us at an accelerated rate. I knew right then we couldn’t out run it. It was too late.

  “Everyone brace yourselves!”

  The cloud consumed the truck and all I could remember was seeing glass shattering all around us and seeing Shaun grip the steering wheel with stiff arms. Darkness settled over my eyes.

  I crawled to the opening and placed my rifle towards the gunmen hiding in the sand. I stared into the scope looking for where he may be. Captain Riggs still lay next to me cooking in the hot sun. I searched the sand trying to wait the shooter out. Hours passed and I didn’t move. I had used the bathroom on myself and the stench of my urine and Captain Riggs lifeless body was becoming unbearable. Before heat exhaustion had taken over I see the suns reflection beaming off of an object in the distance. I focused down my scope and I noticed the top of a head showing above a sand hill. I judged the wind and adjusted my scope. I slowly inhaled and exhaled my breath while firing one shot into the distance. I see the sand exit into the air and the head disappeared. I couldn’t tell if the bullet made contact so I waited for a sign of life. I was feeling faint and began to slip into an exhausted state. A glimpse of hope suddenly appeared behind me. I heard the loud circulation of chopper blades. I looked behind me and saw American helicopters flying towards me. They landed in front of the compound and a soldier ran out of the helicopter to me and lifted me up. Two more soldiers ran to Captain Riggs’ body and carried him to the aircraft. I stumbled towards the helicopter and they placed me inside of it while handing me water to hydrate. We lifted into the air and passed the gunmen lying on the sand with blood splattered behind him. I made the shot.

  I awaken with my body lying in the middle of the road. My vision was blurry and I couldn’t focus enough to see a clear image. Everything around me seemed wavy and my head had obtained a horrible pain I had never felt before. I looked up at the sky and it was a hazy baby blue with small cotton white clouds sitting in place. My arm felt like someone had hit me with a baseball bat. My legs were tingling and numb. I put my hands on my head and tried to focus on an image to get my vision back. My arms fell to the pavement and my vision was slowly clearing. Every limb on my body was covered in blood. I raised my head off of the pavement and searched around me. I gazed towards the city and there was no building left standing. Flames were burning over thirty feet high. The heat from the sun fueled my upbringing. I turned to the other direction and saw Mark lying twenty feet away from me on his stomach with arms spread out not moving. I attempted to get to my feet as fast as I could but my body slowed me down. My legs were weak, but they still managed to hold me up. My left leg was busted so while I tried to sprint to Mark I was limping with blood flowing down my leg. I finally reached him and dropped next to him.

  “Mark, Mark. Wake up.”

  He slowly started moving all while grunting in pain.

  “Mark, are you okay?”

  Mark slowly turned his head, looked at me and replied, “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. I think someone blew up the damn city.”

  Mark turned the rest of his body over on to his back and took a deep breath. He began coughing as he rested his hands on his chest. I heard footsteps coming up behind me so I quickly pulled my gun from its holster and pointed towards that direction. Shaun came stumbling around to us while holding his right arm in place.

  “Dammit Shaun you scared me. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah man. I think my arm is broken.”

  Zora appeared with Brock leaning up against her from the other direction.

  Shaun stared at them and asked, “How are you guys feeling?”

  Brock replied, “Feels like I was just in an atom bomb explosion.”

  Zora sat Brock down to the pavement and she fell to the ground with glass sticking out of her leg. She gripped it tightly and yanked it from her skin. She griped her knife, cut a sleeve of her shirt and wrapped it around the wound.

  I looked at Shaun and asked, “Where’s Logan?”

  A frightened look came across his face and I brought myself to my feet again. I limped towards Shaun and said, “Stay here with them. I’ll find him.”

  I pushed through the pain and walked around looking for Logan but could not find him.

  “Logan! Where are you brother? Logan!”

  I walked around to the other side of the truck wiping sweat from my eyes and that’s when I saw something that destroyed my world. An arm was hanging out of the passenger side window with blood dripping from the fingertips. I placed my hand over my mouth and began to cry.

  “LOGAN!”

  The pain from my leg faded as I ran to the truck. I kneeled down to the ground and saw Logan lying on the roof of the truck with his eyes closed and a shard of glass sticking up from his chest. His head had a gash across the middle of the forehead and he wasn’t moving.

  “Logan, please wake up. Logan please.”

  I shook his arm but he did not open his eyes. I gripped his upper body and pulled him out of the truck. I pressed my boots up against the truck and the glass crackled beneath them as I dragged his body across the road. I pulled him onto my legs and saw his arms were torn open and both his legs were broken. Blood was spilling from his chest and his head as he lay lifeless on me. My eyes filled with tears and I held him closer to me.

  “No! Why God,�
� I shouted to the Heavens. “I’m so sorry Logan. I failed you.”

  I took a deep breath, “ I’m sorry. I love you brother. I’m sorry.”

  Brock and Shaun appeared in my sight and the look on Shaun’s face will haunt me no matter how many times I try to forget it. I know a piece of him died along with Logan. He was our best friend and but he was closer to Shaun more than anyone. Shaun fell to his knees placing his head into his hands and Brock stood next to him with his hand on his shoulder. Zora helped Mark to where we were and they saw Logan’s body lying on me and began crying. No one said a word. They all surrounded Logan and I while wiping tears from their eyes.

  I looked around at everyone wiping the tears from my eyes and said, “We need to make a stretcher. We are not leaving him here. I don’t care if we have to carry him the fifteen miles to the safe house. He deserves to be with us at home.”

  I placed his head on the road and Shaun picked me up from the road.

  “I’m sorry Shaun. I failed him and you. I’m sorry I let you down.”

  Shaun walked to the back of the truck and tore off the tailgate. He placed it next to Logan’s body and stood next to me.

  “Atlas, you didn’t fail anyone. He was a warrior and a brother. He lived and died for what we all believe in and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Now he can rest knowing he tried. It’s better for him to be up in Heaven than down here in Hell.”

  Shaun and I lifted Logan’s body onto the tail gate and crossed his arms over his chest. Mark, Zora and Brock came back with some rope they had found to tie Logan to the tailgate. I grabbed straps from our duffel bags and attached them to the slag of the ropes. I placed the straps on my shoulders. Gripping them tightly we started walking towards the safe house.

  We couldn’t leave him there for the sun to disgrace or the zombies to feast on. Logan was a brother, a best friend and one of the greatest warriors I will ever come to know. The things he did were of legends even before the apocalypse. When we invented the Z.E.D.S. we didn’t think that we would be dealing with military weapons such as bombs being blasted from the sky. This was one thing we didn’t prepare for. We didn’t prepare for the loss of our friends and family. Our brother is gone and we were determined to find answers why this happened. The Z.E.D.S. are no longer just hunting zombies and saving mankind. We are hunting the ones responsible for the massive chaos brought upon our existence. We are the nightmare of a broken system and they will know our names when this is done.