Plague of the Living Dead (The Z-Day Trilogy Book 3)

by Mark Cusco Ailes

  “Are you asking me if they can destroy the normal zombies? I hadn’t thought about that. I suppose if we made an entire battalion of smart zombies, we could put them in the field for a test. It would stand to reason that only a zombie could kill a zombie. We’ll discuss this further once you’ve made it back here. I’ll start working on this right away. If we’re lucky, we’ll be in time to do some good.”

  “Someone needs to inform President Andrews. He needs to declare a state of emergency before we run out of time. You need to get him and Mr. Thornton there as soon as possible. No matter what happens, they both must be protected.”

  “Agreed. You make the call. He trusts you more than he trusts me. He doesn’t trust science, remember?”

  “I’ll take care of it,” said General Milkwood. “You know what you need to accomplish.”

  “I’ll be waiting for your return.”

  General Milkwood informed the pilot to head back to base and then sat silently, trying to find the words he needed to convince President Andrews he needed to go into hiding until a plan was initiated to stop the virus from spreading across the United States. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy. President Andrews wasn’t known for running from danger. He was the type of man who loved to be in the thick of things, and he wasn’t going to go quietly. He had to find a way to convince him he was needed at the base in Nevada. He just had to figure out how he was going to convince him.

  President Andrews was meeting with Gerald Thornton when General Milkwood placed the call to him.

  “General Milkwood, what do you have to report? What? It’s airborne? General, what exactly are you trying to tell me? I can’t do that. I realize that my life is in danger. Listen…listen, General, my country is going...” He was interrupted by Mr. Thornton who had turned on a TV.

  “Mr. President, you’re going to want to see this.”

  “General, I’ll get back to you.” He watched the newscast as it unfolded live from Illinois.

  “We’re reporting from here in Joliet, Illinois where sinister attacks are occurring throughout the city. What we know right now is cannibalism is occurring in the streets. It appears that zombies are attacking and eating people alive. They are feasting on warm human or animal flesh. The victims in return are coming back to life and continuing the attacks. They don’t seem to be attacking each other.” The camera panned to a young girl eating her black cat while slowly shambling across the street. It panned back to the reporter. “The zombies appear to be brain dead, moving about on pure instinct. Authorities don’t know what is causing the outbreak. Speculation is it’s some form of chemical agent released into the public water supply. We couldn’t confirm this to be true. Citizens are being urged to stay indoors. If any of your loved ones exhibit violent tendencies, you must regard them as a zombie and defend yourself as necessary. Forget they are your mother, your father, your brother, your aunt, think of them as your enemy.” The camera panned to several zombies shambling toward the reporter. She turned and the horde grabbed her and forced her to the ground. The camera dropped to the ground and a gruesome scene was captured.

  Mr. Thornton turned off the TV and looked at President Andrews. “The public is going to blame you for all of this.”

  “It’s worse than you think, Gerald. General Milkwood informed me it’s airborne. You don’t need to get bit for the virus to spread.” He looked at Mr. Thornton, pounding his fist on his desk. “Dammit! This is my fault! I should never have gone along with this zombie park idea. I should have listened to you.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up just yet. We have a problem on our hands. If this thing is airborne, nobody is going to be safe. We have to assume it will. We have to get you to Nevada, Mr. President.”

  “Gerald, they’ve already been exposed. I’m sure they realize it by now.” He sat down. “Gerald, we were exposed when we visited there. If we’re carriers, and I’m sure we are, then everybody at the White House has been exposed.”

  Gerald stared at him frightfully. “So there isn’t any hope. There isn’t anything we can do about it?”

  “Inform your wife we’re under quarantine at the White House. No one is to leave or enter this building until…until we’ve all become flesh eating zombies.”

  “Are you sure we’re contagious? Do we have proof this is true?”

  President Andrews stared at him for a moment trying to find some encouraging words. “Just make it happen. No one in, no one out.”

  Chapter Nine

  Captain Spanner led his convoy down one of the streets in Joliet, Illinois. He had been ordered to defend the city at all cost. Their objective was to neutralize the enemy before they could leave the city limits. They were heading for the mall area. They had reports it was the area where a majority of the attacks were occurring. When they arrived, Captain Spanner couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They pulled into the mall parking lot and parked near a blood-stained news truck. Several zombies were ripping chunks of flesh from a woman wearing a business suit. He saw she was holding a microphone in her right hand. He knew it had to be a reporter who was attacked while doing her broadcast. He aimed his sidearm and fired six shots in succession. He turned to his men.

  “Spread out men! Kill as many of these bastards as you can! We’re not leaving here until every last one of them are lying in a pool of their own blood. And whatever you do, don’t let any of them bite you!”

  He moved swiftly across the parking lot, firing and changing magazines when necessary. He made his way to a parked van with an angel etched onto the side of it. He made his way around it and stopped. An elderly man holding a cane crawled into his view. He stared at the man in disgust. His lower half had been forcibly removed and he was dragging his intestines behind him. Captain Spanner raised his sidearm and put one in between his eyes.

  He stood staring at him, trying not to imagine the brutality that found him. He heard one of his men screaming behind him, and he turned to look. He witnessed six zombies bringing him down. He ran toward the brutal attack and saw his soldier’s helmet being tossed aside like garbage. He knew there wasn’t anything he could do for him but show him mercy. He unloaded his clip into the horde until he had a clear view of his soldier. He knelt next to him.

  “Kill me, Captain Spanner, kill…” He closed his eyes.

  Captain Spanner said a prayer for him and fired a mercy shot between his frightened eyes. He had been one of his new recruits and had just joined the unit only two months ago. He closed his eyes and snatched the dog tags from around his neck. He held them in his hands and looked around. He knew they were losing the battle. There were more zombies than there were soldiers. He put the dog tags in his pocket and thought about ending his own life. He didn’t want to live in a world dominated by creatures that feasted on flesh. He brought his sidearm to his temple and then froze. He was being selfish. He had a job to do. He snapped out of it and continued across the parking lot. Several of his soldiers were slowly gaining ground toward the mall. He knew what they had in mind. If they could get to the mall and sweep through it, clearing it of zombies, they could set up a command center there, and then call for reinforcements. It wasn’t the perfect plan, but at least he figured they could fan out from the mall area and sweep through the surroundings areas.

  He reached the entrance to the mall and saw a group of walkers, who were trying to gain access to the parking lot, take down a couple of his men. He fired several shots until his men could be dragged away from the carnage. He hated losing more men, but he knew it was inevitable. They were all facing an enemy none of them had seen before.

  They were successful at pushing the horde back inside the mall, giving them a chance to secure the doors behind them. The floor wept of fresh blood from his fallen soldiers, but the offensive continued on until they were able to clear the main floor of the mall. Once they had it secured, they were going to check the surrounding stores and then sweep through the second level. He turned right into a long hall past a pretzel place and c
ame to an abrupt stop. A young boy, he figured was around nine, was standing there staring blankly at him with a pretzel dangling from his mouth. He was covered in blood from head to toe. Captain Spanner could see the boy was missing his right arm. Without warning, the boy sprang toward him trying to grab him with his left hand. He moved out of the way just in time after tripping the boy, sending him crashing to the ground. He pressed the barrel of his sidearm to the back of the boy’s skull and fired.

  “Are you all right, Captain?” asked one of his soldiers.

  “No, I’m not all right. None of this is all right.” He looked at the soldier, fighting back tears. “Let’s just get it done. We need to get this done.”

  They had the lower level of the mall cleared within the hour. The floor of the mall was littered with the carcasses of the living dead, now brought to death for the second time. It was now time to regroup and prepare for an assault on the second level.

  Terrance had taken the group to the second level before the soldiers had stormed the mall. They were in the back storage area of a gun shop that had been left unsecured. He was disheartened to see the shop was filled with zombies. He was even more shocked to see one of the zombies with a handgun waving it around like a toy. He motioned to the others to hide in the back of the storage area behind several large towers of cardboard boxes.

  “What we need to survive is on the other side of the swinging door. Unfortunately, I counted seven zombies inside and the gate is open. I think we can deal with the zombies inside the store and still be able to secure the gate to keep others from getting inside.”

  “It sounds like a suicide mission,” said Patricia. “We just need to get out of the mall.”

  “And go where, young lady?” asked Terrance. “There are more zombies outside than there are inside. Have you ever seen the zombie movie that took place inside a mall? They cleared it out, locked all the doors, and stayed safely inside away from the zombies outside. That’s what I think we should do.”

  “Didn’t the movie end with looters getting inside, and letting the zombies enter the mall?” asked Daniel.

  “That was just a movie,” he reminded her. “I don’t think that’s really going to happen.” He looked around at everybody. “We can do this. There are plenty of guns and ammunition on the other side of the door. We just have to go out there and get them.”

  “And battle zombies,” said Patricia. “Let’s not forget that one important fact.”

  “How much ammunition do you have?” asked Daniel.

  Terrance laughed, pointing at the boxes they were hiding behind. “I bet you some of them contain ammunition. Only one problem, though. We can’t go inside with our guns blazing. It will alert the other zombies in the store to our presence. We have to find another way to deal with them.”

  “What?” asked Patricia. “You want us to go out there and fight the zombies? You’re not getting me to go out there and do that.”

  Terrance looked at her. “I’m not expecting you to do anything.” He looked at Daniel. “Are you up to it?”

  Daniel looked around. “What if there is another way? Why don’t we try to take them on one at a time?”

  “I’m listening.”

  Daniel pointed to a bathroom on the other side of the storage area. “The girls can hide in the bathroom for starters while we deal with the zombies.” He pointed to an opened tool box next to them. “We can lure the zombies in smaller groups back here and use the hammer, the screwdrivers, or anything else we can find to puncture their brains. If we’re careful, the rest of the zombies won’t know what’s happening back here.”

  Terrance liked the idea. He knew the zombies would be easier to manage if they were in smaller groups. He shook his head in agreement. He looked at Brinke, Emily and Patricia. “Does this sound good to all of you?”

  “I like the idea,” said Patricia without thinking. “Zombies don’t use the bathroom.”

  Brinke chuckled and put her hand over her mouth. She held her breath, thinking the zombies had heard her chuckle. She nodded her head to inform Terrance she agreed with the plan.

  “Good,” said Terrance. “Let’s get this done.”

  Brinke led a small group into the small bathroom and closed the door behind her. It was cramped inside and the bathroom had a peculiar odor. Patricia felt claustrophobic. She stared at the door wanting to push past everybody and retreat back to the storage area. She felt someone grab her arm and hold her. It was Emily who knew she would be panicking.

  “I’m here with you, Patricia. I’ll help you get through this.”

  Brinke saw Patricia was uncomfortable. She felt the same way. She didn’t like the idea of being trapped inside a confined space. It stemmed from her childhood years. She had come from an abusive family. Their idea of punishment is what she referred to as torture. Her father would lock her in the closet for days at a time without food, water, or a bathroom break. Her mother never came to her rescue. Instead, her mother relished the time when she was locked in the closet, telling her it was the only time she could relax without having to wait on her hand and foot. She was forced to cower in the dark, because her parents would put a towel in front of the door to keep from letting any light emerge from underneath it. She could hear them in the living room, laughing at her misery, placing bets on how long either of them could keep her locked inside before caving and letting her out.

  This went on well into her teens until her parents had divorced. Her father went through a midlife crisis and started sleeping with any woman who obliged him. Soon he moved out leaving her mother to fend for herself. Her mother wasn’t strong enough to endure those times. She found her mother dead in her bed several weeks later from a sleeping pill overdose.

  Her grandparents came to her rescue and let her stay with them until she graduated from high school. Unfortunately, she fell into the same trap her mother had fallen into with her father. At a young age she married Owen who was also abusive. For reasons she didn’t understand, she put up with it for several years before she found evidence he was cheating on her. She had finally had enough. People who love each other are supposed to be faithful. She immediately secured a lawyer and filed the paperwork for a divorce. All she had to do was get him to sign the paperwork. She wondered what he was doing at the moment. Actually, she didn’t care. It didn’t matter what he was doing. She watched as Patricia held Emily’s hand. She wished she had a friend like that who could comfort her. All she had was her coffee shop. It was the only place she felt safe. That was until now. Her thoughts were interrupted by commotion happening inside the storage area. She heard boxes being tipped over and Terrance shouting out commands. She wanted to open the bathroom door to see what was happening, but she knew better. If they failed in killing the zombies, she didn’t want them to know there was a group of people hiding in the bathroom.

  “Hit it in the head!” screamed Terrance. “It’s not a stuffed animal!”

  Daniel hit the zombie much harder, splitting its head open. Blood flowed from the wound freely, cascading to the floor like a waterfall. Daniel dropped its head so it hit the floor. He looked toward the door as three more zombies entered. They immediately grabbed one of the men standing near it and forced him to the ground.

  “Holy cow!” screamed Terrance. “Nothing is going according to plan!” He watched as the zombies tore the man’s chest open, exposing the ribcage. He wasn’t left with a choice. He ran past the feeding zombies and into the main store. He pushed by a couple of zombies and hurried to the front gate and slammed it shut. He turned around and shot the two zombies and stormed to the storage area and dealt with the feeding zombies. He stood there trying to catch his breath. “Get the keys off of the desk,” he said, checking his gun. He was now out of ammunition. He tossed it aside. He didn’t care. He now had access to all the weapons he would ever need.

  Daniel tossed him the keys from the desk and went to lock the front gate. Several zombies were already standing on the other side of it trying to re
ach in to grab at him. Terrance laughed. He showed the zombies his arm. “Is this what you want? I bet every single one of you wants to find out what Terrance tastes like. Well, not today! Nobody is going to make a Thanksgiving dinner out of my body!”

  He moved away from the gate and looked at all the weapons displayed in the room. It was now time to go shopping. He heard screaming coming from the back area and he swiftly made his way to find out what had happened. He found Patricia kneeled over on the ground, vomiting.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “She saw all the blood,” said Daniel. There isn’t anything back here to cover the bodies with.”

  Terrance approached Patricia. “I’m sorry, young lady. I know it’s a gruesome scene, but you’re going to have to find a way to deal with it. If you don’t, you’re going to get yourself killed; or worse yet, one of us killed.”

  “She knows that,” pleaded Emily. “He didn’t warn us about all the blood.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” said Daniel. “I didn’t use my head.”

  “Well, it’s over now,” said Terrance. “What’s done is done. We need to get our heads together. We’re safe inside here for now, so let’s gather all the weapons and ammunition we can and figure out what our next move is going to be. We…” He was interrupted by the sound of gunfire coming from somewhere in the mall.

  “Looters?” asked Daniel, looking at him.

  “I don’t know. Let’s arm ourselves just in case. If they are looters, we might have two separate enemies to protect ourselves from.” More shots erupted through the mall. He heard several men shouting from the first level. He knew if they were looters, the gun shop was one of the places they would want to loot. He made his way behind one of the counters to secure a high powered rifle hanging from the wall. If they wanted to gain access to the shop, they were going to have to go through him.