Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Family & Friends (Book 3)

by J. D. Chambliss

  “This is the real world, son,” Jonah whispered to Jack. “Sometimes the right thing isn't the moral thing. If he'd lived he would have terrorized countless others and destroyed lives. More importantly, he could have killed your sister, and then we'd all be in trouble.”

  “About that,” Jack said, still staring at the body. “Why is my sister so important?”

  “I'll tell you later,” Jonah said. “Right now, you need to talk to these people.”

  Jack looked across the stage, toward the crowd of people. He hadn't made a public speech since high school, but he was willing to give it a try.

  “My name is Jack Frost,” he said quietly. “I...three weeks ago, the world ended. Today, a new world begins, but what kind of world? It's up to you, isn't it. I can help lead you, but I want to create a different legacy than Dunfield. I might not have his influence, but I will lead you, better than he did. I want to know who’s with me? Who wants to build a new world with me?”

  It wasn't the greatest speech in the world, but it got a few cheers, and soon enough the entire community acknowledged Jack.

  “You did good, but you're going to have to get confirmation from the rest of Dunfield's people,” Jonah whispered into Jack's ear.

  “Soldiers!' Jack shouted. “Send word back to your command; tell them that General Dunfield is dead, by my hand, and if they wish to join me, I will welcome them into my ranks.”

  “That works,” Jonah approved.

  As he waited, he approached the two women on the stage and untied them; they immediately thanked him and ran toward Sarah. The three hugged and began to cry. Jack wondered what sort of relationship they had with his sister, but determined that now wasn't the time to ask questions.

  “I need you and your sister to come with me,” Jonah said.

  Jack nodded and motioned to his sister to follow. They followed Jonah to the back of the wall, exiting through a small door set into the gate. They followed him for at least a mile, to a patch of forest, and finally a clearing. The clearing itself was not as interesting as what was parked within.

  “Oh...my...God,” Jack said, falling to his knees.

  ***

  “Well, what do you know,” Carl said. “I found us a boat.”

  He had parked directly in front of a dock, advertising the presence of a Carnival cruise ship. They could see it, sitting in the slip, and Amber quickly concluding that it was the largest ship she'd ever seen.

  “My God,” she said, “it has to be...ten stories high!”

  “Higher than that,” Carl said. “ and it looks like it was between passengers. I doubt we'll find a single zombie onboard, other than the odd maintenance crew member.”

  “So listen,” Frank said from behind the wheel of the semi. “We've been through a lot together, as a family. We've suffered some losses, and to be perfectly honest, I wish none of this had ever happened. But you guys stuck with me, and more importantly, you stuck together. For that, I'll be eternally grateful, and I love you guys.”

  “I love you, too, Dad,” Amber said.

  “Enough mushy shit,” Carl said. “Let's get this shit onto the boat.”

  It didn't take much time to get the boat loaded, especially not after they located a forklift on the dock. As they hauled the boxes of food up the ramp, they kept a wary eye out for zombies, but saw none.

  “I don't like this,” Carl said. “It's too damn quiet here.”

  “I agree,” Frank said. “We need to check the lower decks before we take this behemoth out.”

  “You still don't think I can drive this thing do you?” Carl grinned.

  Frank raised a hand to his forehead, staring at the horizon.

  “I'd believe anything at this point,” Frank said. “Here's my question though, are we going to have enough fuel to make it...wherever we're going?”

  “After that incident...you know the one,” Carl said. “They started installing nuclear reactors on these things.”

  “Isn't that dangerous?”

  ”Not so much as you'd think.”

  “Interesting,” Frank said, heading down to one of the lower decks with Carl in tow. “Do you hear that?”

  Carl stopped, cocking his head.

  “I think so...it's...a zombie, maybe? I don't know.”

  “Maybe it's one of your tentacle monsters,” Frank joked.

  “Hey now,” Carl said, “That is nothing to joke about, you didn't see the thing.”

  “I saw something splattered against the wall,” Frank said. “Could have just been that you lost your lunch.”

  “You're just full of smart ass today aren't you,” Carl said as he reached a door on the next deck. They weren't quite to the passenger levels yet, and this was definitely a new layout.

  “I have no idea where I'm going,” Carl said. “I actually did some work on a Carnival cruise ship a few years ago, but damn, they've changed everything up and around.”

  He pulled the door open, and stepped through, into a hallway. The interior of this hallway, unlike the rest of the ship, had not been modified in the least to look like a normal home. Throughout the rest of the ship, great lengths had actually been taken to ensure passengers felt at home, rather than feeling that they were on a boat. Up here, however, such care had not been taken. The hallway was cold and unforgiving, to say the least. On the right side were a series of portholes that ran the length of the hallways, the left side littered with various doors.

  “I think the captain's quarters will be behind us; these are crew quarters,” Carl whispered.

  “Why are you whispering?” Frank demanded.

  “I don't know, in case there's something in here?”

  “If there is something in here, it's me, and I'm going to kill you if you don't speak up.”

  They reached the end of the hallway and turned a corner. In front of them stood a massive set of steel doors.

  “That's an elevator,” Frank said. “There's an elevator on a boat. These things are getting more and fancier every day.”

  “It leads down to the passenger area,” Carl explained. “We passed it on the way up.”

  “Do you think we'll find any guns on this dingy?”

  “I really doubt it,” Carl said sadly. “They're not allowed to bring firearms...though we might find a flare gun or two. We're going to have to raid a gun store on land.”

  “How do you suggest we find a gun store?” Frank wondered. “I don't think Google Maps is going to be of any help now.”

  “I've always been a fan of MapQuest, actually,” Carl said.

  “Boy, what the hell is wrong with – what was that?”

  They both stopped to listen. When they'd entered the hallway they'd turned to the right, without even bothering to check out the rest of the area.

  “Oh hell, you'd think we would have learned by now!” Carl moaned as ten or more zombies rounded the corner. He instinctively pressed the elevator button, then pressed it again, and again.

  “The elevator moves as slow as these things!” Frank screamed, taking aim with his rifle. The elevator finally dinged, and the doors opened. They stepped backward, both taking aim with their weapons.

  “Close the doors!” Carl shouted.

  “You close the doors; you're the one with a pea shooter!”

  Carl reached forward and pressed the 'close button on the elevator panel. They were almost too late. One of the zombies managed to get an arm in, and subsequently lost it when the doors closed and severed it. As the elevator descended, they both stared at the still flinching limb on the elevator floor.

  “It's not a pea shooter,” Carl said quietly.

  “It's a damn pea shooter,” Frank reaffirmed his earlier statement.

  “It's a .38.” Carl wondered why Frank always picked the most insignificant thing to get stubborn about. Wasn’t there a dead, zombie limb laying in the middle of the elevator? Zombies might be more important to worry about right now.

  “It's a pea shooter.”

  “Fin
e, whatever.” Carl gave up; if he wanted to call it a 10 foot grey rabbit with pink polka dots, who cared.

  The elevator continued to descend, playing some sort of terrible jazz music over the speakers as they dropped toward the bottom of the ship. Musack, Carl hated elevator musack.

  “Where did you send this thing?” Frank demanded.

  “Reception, figure we can get off the boat, climb back up, and get the drop on them the second time around.”

  It wasn't a bad idea, at all.

  “We're going to have to confine ourselves to areas that we've already cleared,” Frank said. “It's like cleaning out a damn wasp infestation.”

  “Wasps are easier.”

  “We definitely need to find some weapons,” Frank remarked.

  “We have bigger things to worry about,” Carl informed him.

  “Such as?”

  “Well, for one, how are we going to keep the pool clean? We have a pool now...somewhere on this barge.”

  “As always, you have a strong sense of priority.”

  The elevator dinged, and they both braced themselves for what could have been an inevitable zombie attack. Instead, the doors opened, and there was absolutely nothing waiting for them, other than a wide open reception hall. To say it was large, would be an understatement.

  On each side of the hall stood a curved staircase, draped in red fabric. The rest of the hall seemed to be dedicated to commerce and finance. There were various shops flanking each wall, and in the very center stood the check-in desk.

  “We're still...we're still on the boat, right?” Frank asked Carl.

  “Yeah bro, still on the boat.”

  “Because I feel like I'm standing in a shopping mall.”

  “Yeah, that's understandable.”

  “Hey guys!” Amber shouted from the other side of the room.

  “Amber?” Frank called out.

  “Who the hell else would it be?” Amber called back as she and Kelly walked across the room.

  “How did you get down here?” Carl was actually curious, though he wasn't sure if it mattered.

  “Took the stairs,” Amber pointed to the massive entry stairs behind them.

  “What's up there?” Frank asked, craning his neck, as if he could see beyond the doors.

  “A bunch of shops, a theater, restaurants, and on level three there's a swimming pool. I was trying to figure out how we were going to keep it clean.”

  Frank practically threw his face into his palm the moment Amber mentioned pool cleaning. What was it with keeping the damned pool clean? We were in the middle of a horrific apocalypse, weren’t we? It wasn’t like we were sailing on vacation to the Bahamas!

  “My God,' he said. “Why is everyone worried about the pool? Why don't we worry about the zombies?”

  “What zombies? I didn't see anything when we came through,” Amber said.

  “Up in the crew quarters,” Carl explained. “There are a crap ton of them, I think they were either the ship's crew or the maintenance crew, either way, it's going to be trouble.”

  “I'm sorry to ask,” Amber said, “but did you pay attention to what they were wearing?”

  “Do I look like a girl?” Carl snapped. It was Amber’s turn to look exasperated.

  “I didn’t ask about your fashion sense. I was asking because we can figure out who they are by what they’re wearing. That way we’d know if they were crewmembers and not passengers. This ship has to hold a boatload of passengers who would now be zombies. But, of course you didn't notice,” Amber shook her head. “Do we have a plan, at least?”

  “We have the food onboard,” Carl said. “So my current plan is to take us out to sea and from there...well I plan to take a nice long nap.”

  “I could use a nap,” Frank agreed.

  “I have a question,” Amber interrupted. “The Navy is still out there, won't they have something to say about us stealing a giant cruise ship?”

  “If all else fails,” Frank said, “we'll start using this thing as a lifeboat, and there’s enough room for a lot of sailors, so they shouldn't object to that.”

  “And if that fails, tell them we're taking a nap,” Carl said as he began walking toward the front of the room, toward a set of massive glass sliding doors, leading to the rear of the ship. “Now there should be a conduit connecting each floor with a ladder thingie--”

  “The stairs you dumbass,” Amber pointed to the staircase they had just walked down.

  “Right,” Carl said, turning around, “you know, Amber, I am really getting tired of your attitude.”

  “Let's stop the chatter and get this boat on the water...or at least out of the dock,” Frank changed the subject. “We've got a long way to go...wherever it is we're going.

  Chapter 14

  The 'ship', if that's in fact what it was, wasn't huge, as Jack thought as UFO would be. Instead it was about the size of four minivans, shaped like a jet with a fat hull. The skin was painted jet black but featured a glossy metallic exterior. For a moment, he couldn't process what he was looking at. He had seen UFO's on movies, and in television shows, but he had always pictured something exotic, like a disc, or maybe a cylinder. Instead, he was staring at something surprisingly familiar. It could have been something manufactured by the military, easily. But as he stared at the square thrusters and the unfamiliar, alien markings on the hull, he knew that he was looking at something from beyond this world.

  “I don't understand,” Jack said. “How is this possible? Who are you?”

  “Well Jack,” Jonah said, “this outbreak didn't start by accident...well...it did, but my people were involved. A container fell to Earth more than a thousand years ago. This container held the virus that you're now fighting to contain. It would have been fine if your people hadn't opened it, but what can I say, humans are curious. My people didn't want to help, they're afraid of this virus, to say the least. I was the only one who wanted to...and I was ordered not to come.”

  “No one was going to help us?” Jack demanded. “Your people would leave us to die when they caused the mess in the first place?”

  “It's complicated, Jack Frost,” Jonah said. “We cannot interfere with your civilization; you're not advanced enough, and we can't risk exposing you to technology beyond your reach. It could change the course of human history.”

  “It's better than leaving us to die,” Jack said.

  Jonah nodded. “In fact, my superiors decided to simply leave you here to die and quarantining the planet for a few hundred years. By then, the zombie apocalypse would have mutated to the point where it was harmless.”

  “A few hundred years!”

  “It was an oversight,” Jonah continued. “They felt covering up would be the most prudent course of action.”

  “They sound just like our government officials!”

  “You're absolutely right, and that's why I'm here. I parked my ship on the tip of Florida, and I walked here using a flesh and blood avatar. I've been in my ship, watching the entire time. I came here and made sure that the outbreak did not end your species. If I'd had more help, we might have been able to save more people, but it is what it is. All I can do now is apologize for our inaction, and try to make it up to you.”

  “So, the body lying in the street....”

  “Isn't me,” Jonah confirmed. “I made the mistake of underestimating Dunfield the first time around. I didn't do that the second time. I moved my ship within range and dispatched a solid hologram of myself.”

  “I don't mean to be rude or unthankful,” Jack said, “but why the hell didn't you just do that before?”

  “Remember, my people didn't want me to come,” Jonah explained again. “Sending out an avatar of myself didn't use much power and didn't draw attention, but sending a hologram, or moving my ship around too much, would certainly draw the wrong kind of attention.”

  “But you did move your ship, and you did use a hologram,” Jack said.

  “That's right,” Jonah nodded. “I did do
that, and we don't have much time left, if you want to save the world. I can't bring back the dead, but I can stop the virus from spreading any further if we use your sister's DNA. She is the only human on Earth immune to the virus's negative effects, and I have searched for her a very long time.”

  Jonah turned to Sarah, prepared to give her a speech, but she was the one who spoke.

  “I know who you are,” She said. “I remember you from my dreams, but most importantly, I have your memories.”

  “My...memories?” Jonah asked, confused.

  “Not your memories, the memories of your people,” She explained. “The virus, the zombie virus contains the genetic memory of your entire species. Your race has been around since the dawn of the universe. You existed long before the universe expanded far enough to support Earth, They say the universe is only a few billion years old, but according to your genetic memory, it's actually eighty-five billion years old. I saw the way your people started out. Cold and alone with stone tools, and how you progressed through the ages. You're not unlike us, in that you went through a rough patch where barbarism won out over intelligence. I saw the great massacre, the war on religion, the rapes, the murders, and I saw how you changed from a savage empire to a peaceful alliance of worlds.

  “But how could you know this?” Jonah stammered. Ross had never seen him so flustered. “How could the virus hold all this knowledge?”

  “I don’t know, but I've seen a place where intelligence is valued above all else, where animals and people are never brought to harm.” Sarah continued on as if she were talking about how to plant and grow sunflowers. Her words were monumental, but her delivery was unremarkable. “Sure, you have your problems, everyone does, but you don't let those problems define you. Then there's you, Jonah. You were born one thousand, eight hundred and thirty-eight years ago, but you're barely middle age. You came here to save us because you felt it was the right thing to do. You risked everything to save us, but you don't care. I want to come with you. I'll let you use my blood to save humanity, but I want to come with you.”