The Z-Day Trilogy (Book 4): Zombie World

by Mark Cusco Ailes

  Cheng was surprised by the question. He felt his heart sink. Does Mr. Franks know I’ve been in contact with him? He wasn’t sure how he should respond to the question. “I’ve never heard of him. Why do you ask?”

  “No special reason,” responded Mr. Franks. “If he tries to contact any of you, I need to know right away. He’s trying to stop the opening of the park.”

  Cheng was surprised by the news. He was sure the general wasn’t trying to stop the park from opening. He suspected Mr. Franks was lying to them to see how they would respond to the allegation. He knew Mr. Franks was a clever man, so for now he would be careful when in contact with the general. He didn’t think Mr. Franks knew about his association with him, but he didn’t want to take any chances. He looked at him. “Do you have any more questions for us?”

  “Not at the moment. If I do, I will let you know. You can both leave now and take care of whatever you came to take care of.” He stared at them as they left his office. He wasn’t sure if Cheng was telling him the truth. He looked unnerved when he asked him about General Milkwood. He decided he would keep his eyes on him just to make sure he hadn’t been lying to him. He took out his phone and called Julie.

  “Where are you right now?” he asked once she answered.

  “I’m with my niece and nephew testing the rides for the party tonight. Did you need something important?”

  Mr. Franks paused for a moment as if he was thinking about what he was going to say. “It’s nothing that can’t wait until later. Go ahead and spend the day with your relatives. I’m sure they’re having a great time.”

  Julie put her phone away. Mr. Franks had sounded weird over the phone, as if he had been bothered by something. She shrugged it off. If it were really that important, she was sure he would have called her to his office. She turned her attention back to Kylie and Carl. They were both emerging from a zombie dark ride. It was a ride through a dark building leading to a graveyard where zombies burst out of the ground and tried to attack. The ride didn’t amused Carl or Kylie. They both looked angered as they got out of the car. Carl stormed over to his aunt.

  “If people actually went through a zombie outbreak, they wouldn’t enjoy that ride. I think the ride is cruel.”

  “I didn’t like it,” added Kylie. “It’s too scary.”

  Julie felt bad about having let them ride it. She didn’t understand the zombie thing because she wasn’t in America when the outbreak first happened. She was in China, working for a company that manufactured carnival rides. She was in charge of sales and worked with companies to get their amusement parks open. That is how she got her job at the park. She was ashamed of herself. She should have known better than to have asked her niece and nephew to go through the dark ride. She knew she had to make it up to them. She looked at them apologetically.

  “Do either of you like rollercoasters. We have three of them here at the park I think you’ll enjoy. None of them involve zombies.”

  “I don’t like tall ones,” said Kylie softly. She was still trying to recover from her encounter with the zombies in the graveyard.

  “I have just the one for you. It’s not too tall and not too fast. It’s designed for younger people.” She led them across the park to a small rollercoaster and helped them board it. “After you ride this one, we’ll head over to the arcade and play some games for a while.” After they got inside their car, she stood back and watched as they headed toward the first hill. She felt sorry for them. She knew it had to be hard on them being at a zombie park after seeing their mother attacked. She also knew it was going to be worse for them once they found out their parents were both dead. She didn’t know how to tell them about their parents. She knew she was being selfish, but she didn’t have time to worry about how they would react while she was trying to get the park ready to open. The only thing she could do was keep them entertained so they didn’t have a lot of spare time to think about it. It would give her some extra time to decide what she was going to do. She watched as their car came back and they got out and made their way back to her. Julie looked at them hoping they enjoyed the ride. She didn’t ask them because she was afraid of how they would answer.

  “I think we should head for the arcade now and play some games. If you’re both lucky, maybe you’ll win some prizes.”

  “I hope you can win more than just stuffed animals,” commented Carl. “I’m too old to collect them.”

  “They have all kinds of things you can win. I’m sure they’ll have something you’ll be interested in,” said Julie, leading the way across the park to where the arcade building was located. Once they arrived, they saw one of the workers shooting some targets at the shooting gallery. It interested Carl. Shooting galleries were something he was good at. He approached it and stood near the worker watching him as he activated some of the targets. He stopped to look at Carl.

  “Go ahead and knock yourself out. You don’t need any quarters right now while we’re testing the gallery. Shoot as many targets as you want.”

  Carl picked up one of the guns from its holster and took aim at the first target and fired. A red beam hit the target, and he watched as a zombie burst from a coffin and moaned. Carl smiled and looked at the worker proud of himself. He smiled back and told him to keep firing.

  Julie knew Carl would be in good hands for a while and took Kylie inside to play some skee-ball. It was what she did to relieve her stress. She remembered the time she spent the entire night playing after getting into a heated argument with Chris. It had been the worst one they had ever gotten into. It had taken place inside the arcade while Chris was playing a zombie first-person shooter game. She was trying to have an important conversation with him while he played, but he was more interested in the game than having a conversation with her. She stared at the screen as Chris took his character down an abandoned street where zombies were pouring from burned buildings and exiting from wrecked cars. He made his way down the street shooting every zombie that got near him. She could see he was focused on the game and seemed oblivious to her presence. The more zombies he killed, the angrier she got. She felt as though she meant nothing to him which really hurt her. She had given so much time and energy to their relationship that she was angry he seemed to be kicking it to the curb. She wanted to lash out at him and slap to him across the face, but deep down, she knew it wouldn’t solve anything. She feared it also might just make matters worse. Instead of doing that, she left him to play his game and walked over to the skee-ball area and played a game hoping it would help her let off some steam. At first it wasn’t helping, but she was determined to get even with him, so she rolled the balls harder and harder until her arm hurt. She now knew what she wanted to say to him. She finished her game and stormed back over to him and demanded he listened to her. He stopped concentrating on the game and looked at her.

  “What’s the matter with you? You look extremely angry.”

  She glared at him, surprised by what he had said. She couldn’t believe he didn’t already know she was angry with him. They were on a date, and he didn’t seem to understand she wanted some romance, or even some stimulating conversation. She didn’t want a night of killing zombies at the arcade. “Of course I’m angry! What did you expect when you brought me to the arcade on our date? I was hoping for dinner and a nice romantic walk across the beach, or anywhere else but here.”

  “I took you to dinner.”

  “I know you did!” She sighed and thought about turning around and storming off, but her feet wouldn’t let her. “You’re missing the point. You can come to the arcade any time you want, just not when we’re on a date. Take me somewhere romantic, or take me somewhere where you can show me how much you appreciate being with me. Right now, I’m not feeling appreciated.”

  Chris stood there not understanding where she was coming from. He had taken her out to a nice dinner. Wasn’t that romantic enough? He wasn’t good at understanding women and was at a loss for how to respond. He wanted to glance back at his game,
but he was smart enough to know it would start a war. “All right, what would you like to do?”

  It was in that moment she knew Chris didn’t know how to be romantic and she realized she couldn’t expect it from him. He was the typical guy who didn’t have a romantic bone in his entire body. She knew these types of guys all too well after spending most of her life dating them. She was through dating guys like that. She turned to leave, but stopped to say something from her heart.

  “Chris, you’re never going to be in a good relationship if you don’t learn how to treat a woman with the respect she deserves. For your information, most girls don’t want to go to an arcade on a date. They want to be taken somewhere special, and they want to be listened to. Even if it bores you, they want you to listen to them.” She walked out of the arcade, not looking back. As she walked farther away, she could hear that he had gone back to playing his game. That was the last time she had gone on a date with him.

  Kylie pulled on her arm. She was dragging her to the skee-ball area. “I want to play skee-ball. I haven’t played that in a long time.”

  Julie stood in front of one of the machines staring at it, trying to decide if she was in the right frame of mind to play. She watched as Kylie rolled her first ball and received fifty points. Kylie looked at her and smiled. Julie watched as she rolled her next ball, and once again, received fifty points. She was amazed at how well her niece was at the game. She decided she would join her and see how well she could do against her. They had played for forty-five minutes when Carl showed up complaining about being hungry. She knew this was her cue to stop and take them for pizza. She looked at her watch. It was the perfect time to stop to eat because the park was going to be open for the employees in less than two hours. She decided she would get them something to eat, check in to see if there were any problems she needed to address and then take them back for a night of riding the rides.

  Chris stood in front of one of the enclosures eating a chocolate bar as the zombies congregated in front of him, trying to break through the safety glass in an endless line of teeth and claws. He was used to them and they didn’t bother him anymore. He considered them as no more than wild animals, hungry for his flesh. He stared into one of the zombie’s eyes. They were dead and emotionless. It was the way Julie looked at him. Her gaze felt as though he was being stabbed by daggers. He knew she wanted romance from him, or at least she did at one time. Now she had made him one of her mortal enemies. He didn’t blame her for hating him; he knew it was his fault. He didn’t know how to romance a woman. He knew they liked things like flowers and chocolate, perfumes and jewelry, but Julie wasn’t like your typical woman. She was the type who liked candlelight dinners and walks on the beach at night. He knew what she wanted, but he still didn’t know how to deliver it to her. He took another bite from his chocolate bar and continued to stare at the zombies. He loved watching them claw at the safety glass, as if they would ever be able to break through it. He loved staring at one particular zombie. He could tell she once was a beautiful, young lady. She was in her mid-twenties, had long, curly blonde hair, and was wearing a tattered, school girl outfit. She had the Britney Spears look which made him wonder about her. He often stood watching her, wondering how she became homeless in the first place, and if she had a boyfriend. He felt weird thinking about her the way he did because after all, she was now a zombie. He knew he couldn’t trust her with his life. She would just as well rip his flesh from his bones and devour it without thinking twice about it. His thoughts drifted back to Julie. He wondered if it was truly too late for them, or if she was over him now. He wished he understood women and how they felt. It was one of the mysteries men couldn’t solve. He knew if a man claimed he understood women, he would be lying to himself and the rest of the world. His thoughts were interrupted by commotion coming from across the building. He heard the guards screaming about something involving a zombie. He quickly made his way over to them. They were pointing to the curtain and screaming, “It’s alive!”

  Chris heard the sound of clanking chains and a loud growl as if something was under extreme duress. He knew their main attraction had died and come back to life as a zombie. He looked at one of the guards. “Go get Cheng and let him know his zombie is awake.” He ambled over to the enclosure covered by the curtain and looked at the zombie chained inside. He took several steps backward after seeing it. It was the most grotesque thing he had ever laid eyes on. It reminded him of the elephant man. Its head was deformed and its eyes were bulging out. Its hair had fallen out, and it looked as if it were the survivor of a nuclear war. He knew Cheng was going to be pleased with the results of its transformation. The creature was pulling on its restraints trying to free itself. The thought of it escaping scared Chris, but he knew stronger restraints had been used this time. It would take the strength of King Kong to break free. He tossed the rest of his chocolate bar on the ground and moved closer to the door leading inside the enclosure. Something was drawing him to open the door and go inside with the thing. He opened the door slightly and his arm was forcibly grabbed and pulled away.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” said Ted, closing the door. “Cheng is on his way. Let him have the honor of first contact with his creation.” He looked at the zombie. “It sure is ugly. It’s going to bring visitors from all over to see it.”

  “Are you absolutely sure it won’t be able to escape like the last one did?”

  Ted glared at Chris. “Shut up about that. Relax; it’s not going to get loose unless somebody lets it loose, and it’s your job to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

  They listened as the creature growled loudly. Chris looked at Ted. “I don’t like the way it sounds.”

  “It sounds fine to me. Don’t worry yourself about it. It’s a zombie now, and nobody is going to care how it sounds. I doubt very much PETA is going to come knocking at our door over a zombie.”

  The creature growled again and pulled on its restraints. Chris kept staring at it curiously. He didn’t like the idea he was the one who had to look after the thing. If it somehow got loose, he would be in the vicinity of it and would be the first victim it saw. “I hope it doesn’t get out.”

  “It won’t if you keep the door locked,” said Cheng, showing up in time to hear the conversation. “You won’t be alone, Chris. I’m assigning two guards to stay here with you when the park is open. You’ll be perfectly safe.”

  “Why should I believe anything you say? We both know you can’t guarantee that.”

  Cheng shot him a disapproving look. “Let’s have a look at our main attraction.” He made his way over to the enclosure and looked through the door at the creature that was still trying to free itself from its restraints. He stole a glance back toward Ted and smiled. The creature inside the enclosure was more than he could have hoped for. He felt fortunate the last one got loose because it led to the creation of a more menacing looking zombie. He knew the public would spread the word about their star. He entered the enclosure and approached the creature, just keeping out of its reach. “You, my friend, are going to make me a rich man.”

  Ted overheard him from the doorway. “Don’t you mean it’s going to make me a lot of money? The creature belongs to the park. You’ve already been paid a great deal of money to create it. Besides, we need you to work on our next project. We need to keep creating bigger and badder zombies.”

  “Yes, yes, I hear what you’re saying. I meant to say it was going to make the park a lot of money.” Deep down he knew what he had said was what he meant. Soon General Milkwood was going to pay him at least triple the amount he was being paid now. He only had to wait until the general had the funding and a location for him to continue his research away from Isla Zomblar. For now he had to be patient and work for Ted and Mr. Franks. He left the enclosure, pushing Ted out of his way. “Don’t worry. I know what you want me to do next. Just remember, I can’t do anything unless you get me the things I need.”

  “Randus is taking care of it. You’ll get what
you need on the next shipment. It should be here in the next couple of days.” He waited until Randus was out of the area before turning his attention to Chris. “This zombie is your responsibility. I expect you to make sure nothing happens to it. If you have any problems, come find me right away.”

  “I hope you’re not expecting any problems.”

  Ted stared at him for several long moments. “Are we going to have any problems?”

  Chris smiled, trying to shield how he really felt. “None that I know about.”

  “Good, I’m going to hold you to that.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Two men riding dirt bikes raced across the field avoiding the shamblers who threatened to knock them off as they raced by. They were heading to a nearby town in search of food and shelter while a vicious storm formed behind them in the distance. The revving of the bikes was drawing the attention of every shambler in the immediate area, causing alarm to the riders who had run out of ammunition in their last encounter with them. They were twin brothers who had watched their parents fall prey to growing hordes of zombies in their Oregon town. They were trying to find somewhere safe to regroup and figure out what their next move was going to be. Randy looked at his gas gauge. He was running low on fuel and knew if they didn’t find a gas station soon, he was going to be in trouble. His brother, Chuck, was directly in front of him, oblivious to his dire situation. He was pulling away from him, not paying any attention to his brother.

  Randy called out to him, but the loud engines from the bikes were making it hard to get the message to him. He looked at his gauge again; it was lower than he thought. He suddenly felt his bike sputter and it went silent. He jumped off the bike and let it tip over on its side. He turned to look at the horde slowly making its way toward him. His brother still hadn’t realized he was no longer with him. He heard his brother rev his engine and disappear in the distance. His heart sank. He was left with a bike that was out of gas and without a weapon to defend himself with. He stole another glance toward the approaching horde. They were gaining ground. He looked around for anything he could use as a weapon, but all he saw was tall grass and a couple of brittle tree limbs. He felt hopeless. His brother had left him behind, and he wondered if he had done it on purpose. With him out of the way, his brother probably figured it would slow the progress of the horde and would allow him more time to escape from them. Randy hoped this wasn’t the case. They had been close since birth. In the womb they had held hands right up to the moment of birth. He refused to believe his brother would just abandoned him. He heard the shamblers drawing nearer. He knew it wouldn’t be long before they caught up to him. He looked around. He was standing in the middle of a field, completely surrounded. Even if he wanted to run, there wasn’t a safe direction he could run to.