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

by Botts, Bradley

  I hugged Amelia and thanked her for taking care of me and my team. I grabbed my nieces’ hands and we walked out of the room. As we journeyed down the halls I noticed all of the people that Amelia was taking care of. She had people to help her but she was the only true doctor in that hospital. I didn’t know how we were going to make sure she stayed safe considering she was over one hundred miles away from Watch Tower, but I knew we had to do something because just a couple of blocks away were heavily armed military personnel with no intention on helping anyone. They are left to defend for themselves and I just couldn’t allow it.

  “Brock, take their hands. Mark, come with me.”

  We walked back down the hall to where Amelia was checking on another patient.

  “Amelia, we can’t just leave you here with no one watching out for you. Mark is going to stay here and I will send some people to join him.”

  Amelia looked at me and said, “No. We will be fine. You guys just get home safely.”

  I grabbed her hand and explained, “I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if we left you here unprotected. You and Mark seem to have something between the two of you anyways and I know he wouldn’t make this decision because he doesn’t want to leave us. He needs to stay here with you. In case of an emergency he would be able to get everyone here to the safe house if needed and he’s a great shot. He is staying with you and like I said I will send more people to help.”

  Mark looked at me but before he could say a word I said, “You know you have to stay here with them. You are a great Z.E.D.S. captain and your one of the best friends I have ever had. You are my brother and I know you will protect everyone here. We will be fine back home.”

  Mark gripped my hand and pulled me in for a hug.

  “You be careful going home.”

  “Don’t worry brother. We will figure out a way of communication I promise.”

  I looked at Amelia and nodded my head.

  “You take care of yourselves. When you need to, come to the safe house. We will be there.”

  I turned and walked to the rest of the team and grabbed my nieces by the hands. I looked behind me for a moment and saw Amelia kiss Mark again. This was the way I knew the hospital would stay safe until I got more people here. It wasn’t there end and Mark was going to make sure of it just as Amelia made sure it wasn’t mine. It was dangerous leaving one captain to watch over the entire community of that hospital, but I knew he could do it. I was going to see them again. I knew I was going to. I just didn’t think it was going to be so soon.

  Information

  I’m sorry for the long years before you heard from me again. I thought this notebook had been destroyed during the years, but I had found it under a box in the first room below the picture of Brian and his platoon back in the war. If I’m not mistaken it has been five years since my last story. I will try to start from where I left off if I can remember back that far. From what I can see from my hand writing the last thing I was telling you about was the University of Louisville hospital where I almost died. I will just start from the last thing I remember that came close to that day. Mark had stayed with Amelia and the rest of the community while we went back. Months passed by before we heard anything from them. We were never able to establish a long range communication with them. For days and days I know we feared the worst until one day Mark and Amelia showed up at the safe house. They told us that they were taken over by a group of people with crosses painted on their faces. They murdered the entire hospital except for Mark and Amelia. They managed to escape before the group set the place on fire and burned it to the ground. The ones I sent to help Mark watch over the hospital didn’t make it back. There a lot of good men and women that died that day and they won’t be forgotten.

  Our primary sanctuary doesn’t exist anymore. Watch tower was burned down by the same cross painted faces that burned down the hospital. We didn’t know what was going on or why these people were hunting us down, but they managed to find us. Tyler was killed while making a routine check of our perimeter when they came. We found his body lying in the grass in a pool of blood once we were escaping the flames at the safe house. After everything was destroyed we retreated to our bunker that Brian had left us before he passed away. There we set up a whole new faction of Z.E.D.S. and more people have joined us.

  This lost on paper part of time I had written in another notebook that I believe has been lost on the battle field is a tale which I will never understand how or why they blamed us. Within the five years I have skipped on these pages there was a Christian War. It was us against the world. The cross faces and zombies against the Z.E.D.S. It was a dark time. Every day during those three years had a darkness cast over anything that tried to maintain its life source. The air was dying, my team was dying and everything Mother Nature built was dying. We were blamed for the destruction of the Louisville Towers five years ago. The cross faces said we were the cause of the plague and we killed the only people who were trying to help us. They had a specific leader who seemed Hell bent on trying to exterminate us for good. He led his army against us every day for three years. He told his disciples that if we were terminated from this world then God would forgive them and allow them to have this world back. This man was truly evil. We didn’t know who he was or why he wanted to place the blame on us but he had a way with words that made thousands bow and do whatever he said. We never found him after the battle on Bennet Hill. After his army had fallen he vanished.

  The battle of Bennet Hill was the final battle of the Christian War. It was also one of the hardest battles we ever faced. Kevin, Piper, Laura, Jackson, Shaun and Brock’s parents and Emmitt were all lost that day. They fought for everything we stood for. Most of my family was murdered throughout the Christian War and I had never recovered from it. They were everything to me and they were taken from us for a reason beyond my understanding. They will always be remembered by all of us and we will always fight for they stood for.

  My father became ill after Bennet Hill. From the disease that is infecting the air now because of the rotting corpses above us took its toll on some of the Z.E.D.S. including my father. He doesn’t have much time here with us and there isn’t anything I can do for him or anyone else. Amelia said that this disease is not known to her and no matter how many antibiotics she has pushed through his veins the sickness has seemed to get worse. I can hear him coughing as I write this letter. He relaxes in a bed twelve feet away from my table so I can keep an eye on him every day. I dread the moment I may have to pull the trigger if he doesn’t get better, but I know I will have to when it comes down to it. I love my father very much and everyday he begs me to end his life, to rid him of his suffering, but I can’t do it. Not yet. I still hold on to a glimmer of hope that something will happen before that time comes.

  Brock and Selest have recently had a baby. She is two years old now and she is one of the most precious children you could ever meet. They were married a year ago after we discovered we had an ordained minister in our bunker. Shaun has become my true right hand man. He became vengeful after the murder of his parents, but he has found a clearer path for himself. If anything were to happen to me he would be the one to take over everything. Mara, Chase and Ophelia have ventured beyond our walls establishing new Z.E.D.S. members across the plains. Many of them joined us during the war but after ventured on their own to look for my survivors. Riley went searching for answers. He said he felt like someone was telling him he could find out why. We tried to tell him it was nothing more than survivor’s guilt from the war. He insisted on leaving and we haven’t heard from him since. My other two brothers Sloan and Seth had become entrepreneurs of our team. They developed new forms of gasoline, figured out ways to grow food in our bunker without the use of sunlight. They never stop working on making new things for the team to provide a better fighting chance for our survival. Aurora and I have gotten married also and we are raising Kiere as our daughter. I never thought it would be possible to start a family in this world
but we have done it. Kiere is now fifteen years old but acts like she’s twenty. She trains everyday with Justin and me on tactics and survival. She seems to be made for this world as much as I don’t ever want to say that again, but Kiere is a force not to be messed with.

  Now I’m going to tell you about the Project Rev file Zora had gotten for us before she was killed in Louisville. From what we could tell it stood for Project Revelations. I guess it fit well with developing a virus that would start the end of the world. The more we searched through the file the more we had figured out some of the truth. The profiles it had on us didn’t tell us why we were on it; it only said that we must be eliminated in order for the project to be successful. I have wondered for five years now what has made us so important that random government officials want us dead. That will be another mission to try to establish and find out. There were list of cities to disperse the virus in order to obtain maximum casualties and our small town in the southern part of Kentucky happened to be on that list. The file didn’t tell why children were to be placed in the towers at Louisville but our assumption was something dealing with the immune system. The ages of the kids at the hospital were between 10 and 14 which is when the immune system is in perfect balance. The helmet cam video from my mission with Captain Riggs was of the compound in which part of the virus was being developed. I’m sure you had already figured that out, but I figured I would tell you just in case.

  For the past five years we have survived. Unfortunately I know in the past five years the world did not improve. This means when you read this you will know we have survived. We are still fighting and we are still here to protect you. We will always stand our ground for the weak. We are here for future generations to come, and to preserve our way of life. Mankind’s existence depends on our existence. We are the ones who stand ground for the fallen, and the ones who will always fight back. We are the Z.E.D.S.

  A Warriors Way

  Since this story began I know you have been wondering what was going to happen to us next. Our pages for five years have disappeared and I didn’t even know Atlas was keeping a record of the things we done until I found this notebook. I know you were expecting him to finish telling the story if it would actually ever end, but unfortunately he’s not the one behind the words right now. My name is Shaun and from what I have read you know about me. I was what Atlas called his right hand man. Since it only seems fitting for me to finish what he started I am going to tell you why it is me with the ending of our tale rather than him. About a week ago, the team was having a meeting in the lowest level of our bunker. We were talking about what we needed to do considering the world outside wasn’t getting better. It was getting much worse. During the meeting we had an unexpected piece of information handed to us by our own Riley Carter.

  “Atlas, I need to speak with you right now?”

  We all looked at Riley considering we hadn’t seen him in months. He had gone on his own out into the world trying to find the source of all of this. He told us that he would find us answers.

  “It’s good to see you brother,” Atlas said bringing Riley in the room.

  “Atlas, you don’t understand. I found out where we needed to go. I found out where the answers are hidden,” Riley exclaimed with heavy breathing.

  Atlas pulled Riley to the side as I ease dropped on their conversation.

  “Riley, you sound like a crazy man right now. Just calm down and tell me exactly what you know.”

  “In the time I was gone I discovered the truth. I followed a group of people wondering around the middle of Tennessee. I found out the city when I saw a sign wrapped in vines and overgrown weeds. It said “Welcome To Nashville.” They weren’t drifters either. They were actual breathing people like you and me.”

  “Did they communicate with you?”

  I stood at a distance trying to hear clearer of what they were talking about.

  Riley smiled and said to Atlas, “They were going to Nashville because that’s where the answers were. I asked them what they were talking about. I thought they were crazy. They told me that is where we will find out why the world is the way it is.”

  Atlas had a confused look on his face wondering why random people would know where the source of the virus came from and why it happened.

  “Riley, I believe you may have stumbled upon people that had become crazy and was just making themselves believe they knew what they were talking about. The outbreak was five years ago and we haven’t heard about anything new in the past two years. I believe that you believe they were telling the truth, but how can you be so sure without proof?”

  Riley smiled once more and replied, “They took me there and I saw it for myself. There was a building in Nashville just like the one in Louisville. It had military surrounding the place. A great tall fence was blocking anything or anyone from getting in or out. The only way to go anywhere is by helicopter. You can’t tell me that isn’t a sign of government takeover to apocalyptic proportions.”

  I stood there believing Riley. With what he was saying seemed crazy, but I honestly believed him. I walked over to Atlas and Riley and expressed my views on the topic.

  “Maybe Riley is right. Maybe when we go there we can finally figure out why and possibly begin putting the world back together. You know as well as I do Atlas that even though there is a plan of destruction there is also a plan for construction. We may find what we need there.”

  Atlas had a look on his face that conveyed deep concentration. He was worried about what we would find but more importantly what we wouldn’t find.

  Atlas looked at the rest of the team and addressed them with, “Riley says he knows where we can end this fight. He said that the answers are beyond a tall fence and inside a heavily guarded military building in the old city of Nashville. Apparently part of it still stands. If that is where we will get our answers then I must go to find out. It will only be Shaun, Riley and me leaving. The rest of you will stay here. Keep an eye on the place since this is our last home.”

  Mark, Mara and Brock walked over to Atlas and me with concerned looks on their faces.

  “Why aren’t we going with you,” Mara asked.

  “Just in case Riley is wrong I will not have the rest of team be put in jeopardy like we were five years ago in Louisville. We barely made it that time and I know with just the three of us we can get out quickly if needed. These people need you here.”

  Even though they didn’t understand why Atlas didn’t want the extra fighting power they didn’t argue with him. As we all know Atlas was a stubborn man and when his way was set it was basically the final decision. He did everything his own way but for the greater purpose of keeping us all safe. I always admired him for that.

  As Atlas headed out of the room I went to say good-bye to my niece. While I picked her up in my arms and held her to kiss her good-bye I couldn’t help but pay attention to Aurora, Kiere and Atlas talking. Aurora and Kiere were very upset that he was leaving when he promised them he wouldn’t do something like this again.

  “Atlas, I know you want to end this struggle with everything. I wish we could, but you know as well as I do this journey for an answer is more than likely a pipe dream. The last time you went looking for answers you barely made it back home to us,” Aurora told Atlas while wiping tears from her face.

  “I know it’s a long shot, but I have to try. If we have a true shot of making this world what it was, better than what it was, I have to try. This life isn’t meant for us. You and Kiere are the loves of my life. I want God to acknowledge that so maybe this world will return to the days of normality. I have to do this. For you two I will walk through Hell and back if it meant that we were going to be safe. I promise you I will come home.”

  I saw Atlas hug his wife while they shared a kiss and Kiere wrapping her arms around the both of them. He had a family here that he needed to protect. I am angry at him for not staying that day for them, but I understood why he didn’t. He went and checked in with Sloan and Seth
while checking on his dad. I began loading up the trucks when Karmen came up behind me. I forgot to mention I met Karmen during the war. She is as beautiful as the sunrise used to be. Karmen was one of the civilians that Chase and Ophelia brought back to the bunker after they scouted for more survivors in the wastelands.

  “Were you going to leave without telling me bye,” Karmen said as she shoved me into the truck.

  “Of course not; I was going to come and find you once the truck was loaded. Do you honestly thing I am that heartless I wouldn’t even grab a kiss from you,” I explained to her trying not to focus the numbness in my arm she caused when my body connected to the truck from her shove.

  Karmen smiled at me and said the words I love to hear every day.

  “I love you Shaun. I know you have to do what you and Atlas think is right. Just please be careful. If I lose you I wouldn’t be able to survive this world. I was barely surviving before I met you.”

  I kissed her lips and held her close to me.

  “Don’t you worry about us. We have done things like this before and we came back home. Just do me a favor while we are gone. Keep an eye on Aurora and Kiere because I know they will worry themselves too death and it wouldn’t be good for her baby.”

  Karmen stepped away from me with a shocked look on her face.

  “Aurora is pregnant? Does Atlas know?”

  I stared at her forgetting she didn’t know.

  “I found a pregnancy test hidden in the trash can of the meeting room two days ago. I was going to come and ask you first but Aurora walked in and because of the look she had on her face I knew it was hers. She said she couldn’t be more than a couple of months and she was going to tell Atlas. I don’t know if she ever did. I would ask but I don’t want to start something just in case she hasn’t. It also isn’t my place to be the first to tell him.”

  Karmen stood there in front of me with a terrified look on her face.