After Zombie Series (Book 1): After

by Samantha Gregory

  “Why is Gene-Pharm after you?”

  “That’s a long story. It happened before the original outbreak.”

  “Please.”

  He sighed, “Back when the outbreak started, some dick injected me with the anti-virus on a subway train.”

  “Why? Who was he?”

  “Some skinny nerd, with glasses. He got me as I was leaving the train. I found out later that there was an outbreak on that same train. The government covered it up though.”

  Nerd with glasses? Dad? No, it couldn’t be.

  “I thought the original outbreak was some kind of new virus that started in the sticks? That’s what all the documentaries say.”

  “The virus was manmade, not natural. Gene-Pharm were the ones who released it. Back then I didn’t know anything about it, until this scientist found me. He had worked for Gene-Pharm before they fired him. He wanted to stop the head of Gene-Pharm before he released it somewhere else. The guy in charge was Charles Breton, the new guy’s father.

  “After the cover up on the train, we thought it was over. The bodies were excavated to a small town called Trinity. We ended up there. Unfortunately one of the zombies wasn’t dead. There was another outbreak. That place was ground zero. It got bad fast. Jack and I barely made it out alive.”

  “Jack is the scientist?”

  “No, Jack’s my wife.”

  “Soon to be ex-wife,” the red head snapped, appearing in the doorway. “Got yourself a younger model already?”

  I felt my cheeks redden, “No, I just need his help with something.”

  Jack snorted, “Him? Help? Don’t make me laugh. Useless.” She began throwing stuff into a box, “What’s this?” She pulled a DVD from the box, “You are not taking this.”

  “Oh, come on, Jack. You already got Maddix. What more do you want?”

  I couldn’t help but feel like an intruder right then, “Is that your kid?”

  “No, my WOW character.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Which you bought with my credit card, so legally it’s mine.”

  “I can’t apply for a credit card, I’m in hiding,” Danny retaliated.

  “You can’t apply for a credit card because you don’t have a job.”

  Danny threw his hands up, “Here we go again. You wear the trousers, we all know that. You know she wouldn’t even take my name when we married?”

  I shrugged helplessly, wishing I hadn’t gotten into the middle of this.

  “You’re bringing that up again! Do you know the jokes I would have had to listen to?”

  “What’s wrong with Greene?” I asked.

  “That’s not my real name. It’s …Spratt.”

  Jack headed into the living room, muttering to herself.

  “Sorry kid, but I don’t know anything about Genesis.”

  “You said that you have the antidote? So if a zombie bit you, you wouldn’t turn?”

  “Back when it was given to me, no. But the virus evolved rapidly, I doubt it would work now. It didn’t stop in Trinity. Why do you think that the Alliance were able to regain control of the country so fast? They were able to do it because they knew exactly what they were dealing with and how to contain it. They never stopped working on it. They are probably still working on it now. The antidote I had was from extremely early trials.”

  “I don’t get it. If there was an antidote why didn’t they use it on the people in Trinity? They could have ended it there and then.”

  “There was only one dose. Gene-Pharm were too busy covering their own asses to do anything in Trinity. Then it spread to the next town and the next. The scientist took my blood to try and synthesis an antidote but he was killed before he could finish. Jack and I had to run. God knows what Gene-Pharm would have done if they had gotten their hands on me. They certainly wouldn’t have helped anyone with it. We’ve been hiding ever since.”

  I sat down at the table, “So what’s their end game? If they were able to perfect it, what would they do with it?”

  “What do you think they would do with it? It wasn’t so long ago this country was a global power, they want that back. Imagine having soldiers at your disposal who can’t die, and who could infect their enemies with a single bite. I doubt they are the only ones. I heard rumors a few years back of zombies being smuggled out of the country.”

  “Why?”

  “So other countries could do the same thing. What they don’t seem to realize is that they have created something that can’t be controlled. There’ll be another outbreak someday and I don’t think we’ll live through it.” He saw my expression, “Sorry, kid. I didn’t mean to freak you out.”

  “It’s fine. It’s actually a relief to hear someone tell me the truth for a change.”

  “Hey, did you come here alone?” Jack called from the living room.

  “Yes, why?”

  Danny pulled a gun from his waistband. Who were these people?

  “Is it Gene-Pharm?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I think so,” she raced out to the garage.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know they would find me,” I said.

  There was yelling outside, then the front door was kicked open. Danny shoved me back, taking position beside the kitchen door. Jack returned with a shot gun. Standing opposite Danny, they waited. I took cover under the kitchen table.

  Wesley marched into the room. He stopped when he saw the two guns pointed at him.

  “Don’t…” Danny started. Wesley snatched both guns from them in one fluid movement and threw them onto the counter in front of him. “…move,” Danny finished, lamely.

  “Wesley, stop,” I cried, coming out from under the table.

  “You know Robocop here?” Jack asked.

  “Who?” I asked.

  Danny snickered, “The youth of today.”

  “Gene-Pharm is here. We’re leaving,” Wesley said. There was a strange blank look on his face. What was the serum doing to him?

  “This way,” Jack said. We followed her out to the garage and we all got into her car. Danny drove. He backed through the garage door without opening it.

  “You’re paying for that,” Jack snapped.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered.

  Several AS opened fire on us. Wesley pushed me to the floor of the car, as glass rained down on us. Jack was yelling instructions to Danny.

  “I know what I’m doing,” Danny snapped, right before he crashed through a fence. Another bullet hit the car, this one striking the driver’s side head rest. They were getting closer. Danny took a corner fast and I was thrown around the car. I collided with Wesley and ended up getting an elbow in the head.

  “God, I’ve missed this?” Danny said. Is he crazy?

  Ten minutes later, he stopped the car, “I think we lost them. Time for you two to split.”

  “Wait, where are we supposed to go,” I cried.

  “Not our problem,” Danny said, “You okay, babe?”

  Jack nodded, “What are we going to do?”

  “What we always do, stay one step ahead of them.” Jack flung herself into his arms and kissed him passionately. Guess he wasn’t moving out after all.

  Wesley dragged me from the car. Once we were clear, Danny screeched off.

  “Let go, I can walk,” I snapped, shaking Wesley off. We were by the river.

  “Keep moving,” he replied.

  I heard a chopper in the distance. Wesley heard it too. He grabbed a nearby manhole cover and tossed it aside as if it weighed nothing.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Down.”

  Nine

  Jenna

  I tried my best not to gag at the stench emanating from below my feet. Wesley was stalking ahead of me with a flashlight. I had no idea what happened to him, but he wasn’t the same person he was before. The serum was changing him. But into what? Would he eventually turn, despite what Dad said?

  “Wesley, what is it exactly that my dad gave you?”

  “An enha
ncement drug they started working on over twenty years ago, to create the perfect soldier.”

  “So, you’re a soldier now?”

  He didn’t answer me.

  Something squeaked loudly to my right. I sped up, eager to be out of there. “Is it safe down here?”

  “It would be safer if you were quiet.”

  Quiet? Was there more down here than rats? Alligator’s maybe.

  We reached a junction and Wesley turned left. The tunnel opened up into a much wider area. Chinks of sunlight broke through from above. Wesley shone the flashlight around. It seemed empty, but I felt like I was being watched.

  “Can we get out of here, please?” I whispered.

  “Ssh!” he stopped moving. He switched off the flashlight and we waited in the darkness. At first, I could only hear my own breathing and water trickling all around us.

  Then I heard it. Faint moaning and shuffling feet in the distance. My breathing quickened, “Tell me that’s not what I think it is,” I whispered.

  “At least a dozen zombies heading this way,” Wesley confirmed.

  “Oh God, we need to get out of here,” I said.

  I started back the way we came, when I heard the voices. The AS found us. They were heading our way fast.

  The zombies must have heard them too, because they were done shuffling. They burst out of one of the tunnels. Wesley grabbed me around the waist and we ducked into an alcove, using the darkness for cover. It was a tight fit, but I didn’t dare move. I could hear Wesley breathing close to my ear. I was pressed against his chest. As the zombies passed us, I froze. They weren’t shambling like I imagined they would. They moved as a group, hungry, determined. Like a pack of rabid wolves.

  Scared they would smell us, I tried to move further back into the alcove, but my shoulder was already pressed against the dank wall. Wesley gripped my arms trying to keep me still.

  The AS emerged from the tunnel. They lit up the room with emergency flares and I got a good look at the zombies. They were decayed like the one I had seen years ago, but they had mutilated themselves. One had nails driven through its face, while another wore a halo of barbed wire. Another was missing an arm; I could see bone where their flesh had rotted away. The smell from them was overpowering and I gagged.

  “Open fire,” a voice I recognized as Lewis, commanded.

  Bullets zinged through the air.

  “Move,” Wesley ordered. We ran into the nearest tunnel.

  “Did you know they were down here?” I cried.

  “I told you they had been driven underground.” We could be running into more of them. They had been under our feet this whole time. “We need to get to the surface.”

  Ya think? I thought.

  The shooting ceased. It wouldn’t be long until they caught up to us.

  “Wait,” Wesley said. There was movement up ahead.

  We ducked into a smaller tunnel. I could see a ladder to the surface. It was so close.

  A lone zombie appeared. It was female in shape. It sniffed the air, before throwing its head back and shrieking. I covered my ears as the noise echoed down the tunnel. It was a screamer. I’d heard about them. A few of the zombies mutated over time. Screamers were rare. The virus had some kind of effect on their vocal chords. They issued screams to call the others.

  It ran off towards the AS.

  “Let’s go,” I said. I raced for the ladder and began to climb.

  “Jenna, wait,” Wesley hissed.

  I ignored him and continued to climb. I was three rungs from the top when the AS stormed the tunnel.

  “Hold it there, Anderson,” Lewis snapped.

  Wesley raised his hands.

  “On your knees.”

  I watched, wondering if I could make it to the surface before being shot. Highly unlikely.

  “Where is she?” Lewis demanded.

  They hadn’t spotted me yet. I stayed still. Wesley would rat me out any minute now.

  “Where’s the girl, Wesley?” Lewis asked again.

  “I don’t know.”

  “No more games. You have three seconds to answer me or I’m going to shoot you.”

  “If you do that, who’ll finish the formula?” he asked. I have never heard him so calm.

  “The last time I saw you, you had two broken legs. I know Deluise fixed you. He’ll come for his daughter. We don’t need you anymore.”

  Wesley was silent.

  “One.”

  “I don’t know where she is.” His voice was hard.

  “You better come out, Jenna, unless you want his blood on your hands. Two.”

  “Even if she could hear you, she isn’t going to come out, so you’re wasting your time.” I knew that was directed at me.

  “Last chance,” he aimed the gun at him.

  “Wait,” I said.

  Lewis shone the flashlight in my face, “Get down, now.”

  I descended the ladder. When I was closer, I noticed Lewis’ pale face and the sweat dripping off him. He looked ill.

  “Good. Three.”

  He turned and shot Wesley in the chest. I screamed in shock, as his body fell back into the tunnel.

  “Now let’s go find daddy,” Lewis sneered.

  Ten

  Jenna

  Wesley’s dead! Oh my God. He killed him.

  I couldn’t believe what just happened. I stared at his body which was sprawled across the ground. It was too dark to see his face.

  There was a scream from the back of the tunnel as one of the AS was attacked. The female zombie had him by the throat. It bit his face, spraying blood over the walls.

  “Fire!” Lewis barked. I threw myself to the ground, out of the line of fire. I crawled away trying to find shelter. The noise had attracted more zombies. They were coming from everywhere. I screamed as a hand closed around my wrist. I pulled away. It was Wesley, he was getting up. He was a zombie. I backed up against the wall. When he reached for me again, I kicked out at him, catching him in the face.

  “Ah! Jenna stop,” he cried.

  Okay, zombies didn’t generally talk.

  “I thought you were dead,” I stammered.

  He raised his shirt. In the dim light, I could see that his chest was covered in blood, but there was no wound.

  “Did it heal you again? From a bullet wound?”

  He nodded, “Guess so. We have to go.”

  In the commotion, we managed to get to the ladder. A zombie ran at us. I reacted on instinct and clocked it. It spun and fell. I was shocked at what I had done, but better that than let it bite me. We climbed the ladder, Wesley went first to get the cover open.

  “Hurry,” I urged.

  He flipped the cover up and climbed out. He turned back, reaching out a hand to help me.

  I was grabbed around the ankle and pulled back into the darkness.

  I screamed as I plunged towards the ground, and then my reactions kicked in. I grabbed hold of the ladder, wrenching the muscles in my arms. The zombie that grabbed me let go and fell, landing on one of the AS with a dull thud. It instantly began chomping on him.

  My muscles screamed in pain. I managed to get my feet on the ladder and cling there.

  Lewis was heading my way, but I didn’t have the strength to climb.

  I was yanked upwards out of the manhole by Wesley. He flipped the manhole cover back in place. We were in an alleyway. He dragged a dumpster over the cover and then slumped to the ground, clutching his chest.

  “Did you get bit?” he wheezed.

  “No, are you okay?”

  He shook his head, “Check you weren’t bitten.”

  I sighed and pulled the legs of my jeans up to check for any bites. There was plenty of bruises but no bites. I showed him my arms too.

  “I’m good. Come on, we can’t stay here,” I said. I helped him up.

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  “I was shot in the chest!” he exclaimed.

  “I know that genius, but it healed.”

&
nbsp; “It still hurts though. Feels like I’ve been kicked in the chest by a horse.”

  “You’ll survive,” I muttered.

  We stuck to the side streets hoping no one spotted us. Our pictures were probably all over the news by now. I wondered briefly what the award was for us. A few blocks down, a convoy of AS passed us.

  Wesley put his arm around my shoulders and turned me to look in a shop window. We waited until it passed by, then hurried on. There weren’t many people on the street but I was paranoid that any second someone was going to recognize us.

  On the corner of what used to be Fifth, Wesley glanced around, and then hurried down into the subway. He hopped the blockades. The subway hadn’t been used by passengers in years. All those people crammed together, it was a zombie haven. Trains still ran to transport goods across the city. They were manned by the AS.

  “I’m not going back underground,” I protested.

  “Trust me, we’ll be safe.” I reluctantly followed him down to the platform. It was covered in broken bottles and rubbish.

  “Why didn’t you tell Lewis where I was?” I blurted.

  He stopped at the edge of the platform, “You did that yourself?”

  “Yeah, but he had a gun pointed at you. And why are you ‘normal’ again?”

  “He shot me either way. And the serum is wearing off. Most of it was used up, healing me.”

  He jumped off the platform onto the tracks. He held his hands up to help me down. I ignored them and leapt down beside him. I landed badly on my right ankle, but managed to keep a poker face.

  “Walk where I walk,” Wesley said.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Your dad has a secret lab down here. After the virus hit, people started building shelters and bunkers to hide in. Your dad found this one a few years ago. He keeps it as a backup with all his files in it.”

  More secrets.

  The tunnel ahead was lit by red emergency lights, spaced about twenty feet apart. There was a lot of darkness in between. I shivered, not wanting another ambush.

  Wesley glanced back, “You better get a move on, the train will be along soon.”

  I sped up, ignoring my throbbing ankle, “Really?”

  “We have a bit of time.”

  We walked down the tunnel for about a hundred yards. We arrived at a curve, where a door was set in the wall. It was slate grey, matching the walls around it. Hard to spot if you weren’t looking for it. A short ledge ran below it, barely wide enough to stand on, for me at least.