Ultimate Undead Collection: The Zombie Apocalypse Best Sellers Boxed Set (10 Books)

by Joe McKinney

  And with that, we both stood back. I went to the counter and picked up the gun. Gem took a thick sheet from the shelf against the wall and opened it into a quarter square, and laid it over Jamie’s face, already dim in the candle light.

  I placed the gun against her head, made sure I would hit her brain, and without hesitation, I fired once.

  Then I fired again.

  The echo of the .44 would stay with me forever.

  The thing that had consumed my baby sister was dead.

  And my Jamie was at peace.

  Chapter 18

  Within fifteen seconds of the sound of the gunshots, the door to the lab opened, and Charlie came in with Hemp behind her. I looked, and saw Trina standing just outside at the bottom of the stairs.

  Gem saw her too, and went to her and took her hand. Hemp came to me and put his hands on my shoulders, facing me.

  “I’m sorry, mate. I know you loved her, and because you did, it was the right thing to do. Now you and Gem take Trina inside, and Charlie and I will prepare her body for burial.”

  I nodded. I thought I should say thank you, but I didn’t think I could utter anything without breaking down. As I walked by her, Charlie held her hand out and I took it briefly. The small squeeze told me everything I needed to know and feel. I was so glad we found her and made her a part of our little family.

  I took Gem’s other hand and the three of us made our way back to the house. I’d forgotten my gun, but in typical Gem fashion, Suzi was hanging off her shoulder at ready.

  It was more than three hours before Charlie and Hemp came back in. I didn’t realize it had been so long until they returned. My mind was far away, and Trina had long gone to bed, leaving Gem and me in a comfortable silence – the silent thoughts of those we loved and would never see again.

  “We dug the grave for a service tomorrow morning, Flex,” Hemp said. “At the back of the yard.”

  “Near the tree line,” Charlie added. “It’s shady and beautiful there, so . . .”

  “It’s perfect,” I said. “Thank you both so much for doing that for her, and for us.”

  They sat in the arm chairs opposite the sofa and leaned back, the sweat still glistening on their skin. It was now September in Georgia, and the nights were hot, too. Digging in this weather was not an easy task.

  “We’re a family,” Charlie said. “I’ve felt it since I first arrived here at this house. I loved the two of you immediately, but meeting Hemp and Trina just drove it all home for me. I lost my blood family, but I’m not without.”

  Gem stood and went to Charlie. She held her arms out.

  “Get up, you sweaty mess. I need a hug.”

  Charlie couldn’t suppress a smile, and she stood with a grunt, and put her arms around Gem’s neck, as Gem’s arms wrapped tightly around her.

  “This is going to sound really stupid,” Gem said. She pulled away, put her palms on both of Charlie’s cheeks, and said, “You’re fucking awesome, and I love you, too.”

  Then she put her cheek to Charlie’s, closed her eyes, and eventually pulled away and went back to her seat. Charlie fell back into her chair smiling.

  “So tomorrow, then,” I said. “First light?”

  Hemp looked at me and nodded. “Sure. Let’s get up early and dress in our Sunday best, for what they are. A light breakfast, then we’ll have a service.”

  I smiled. “Tomorrow is Sunday, isn’t it? That’s appropriate. Jamie would’ve taken the girls to church while Jack would’ve played pool with his friends. She didn’t care, though. She told me once that he worked so hard during the week that if he wanted to play pool rather than sit in a pew, then he deserved it. He loved her all the more for it.”

  “I’m exhausted,” Gem said. She looked at her watch. It was 11:30. “Flex and I didn’t even think about food tonight, so we’ll look forward to that breakfast, light or heavy.”

  She held out her hand, and I groaned myself to my feet. “Night, guys. Thanks again. Love you both.”

  They both waved at me, and I let Gem pull me toward our bed.

  Then she stopped short, pulled me back in the living room, grabbed Suzi, and proceeded back toward the bedroom, me in tow.

  “I’m slipping. Getting too comfortable,” she said.

  As Gem and I lay in bed, my arm over her shoulder and our bodies tucked together, I said, “I never thought much about that Springsteen song, Atlantic City. But there’s a repeating verse that I can’t get out of my head.”

  “What’s that, baby?”

  “Now, baby, everything dies, honey, that's a fact But maybe everything that dies someday comes back...”

  “That is eerie. I don’t think I like that song anymore,” Gem said.

  Her breathing grew long and steady, and within a minute, I knew she was asleep. And I was right behind her.

  *****

  The next morning we all got up and did what we said we’d do. It was Sunday, so we put on our cleanest, if not our best clothes – it was time to do laundry, and we all hated it – and went in for breakfast. Hemp had learned to make bread sometime or other, and during the big bread machine craze I actually bought one, along with all the mixes needed.

  Hemp put it to work and we had some nice bread, sliced just right. Charlie made some cinnamon toast with light butter, and coffee all around. It was perfect. But the hard part was about to happen, and I watched Trina gobble down her last piece of toast before clearing my throat.

  “Trina, we have to talk to you about something.”

  “Are we not gonna be able to say fuck anymore?” she said, indignantly.

  Gem shook her head. “That’s not it, baby. You can still say it. It’s about your mommy and big sister.”

  “Jesse? Mommy? Are they back?”

  “No, they’re not, Trini,” I said. “There was . . . well, you know some of what’s going on? How we carry guns around and we watch for bad people?”

  “Yes. And always to listen to the adults when they tell me to do something because it’s different now.”

  “Well,” I said. “you always listened really good. But what I have to tell you is hard, because I love your mommy and Jesse, too.”

  I looked at Gem, and my words were stuck in my throat. She took my hand beneath the table and squeezed.

  “Trina, your mommy and sister have gone to Heaven. They’ve become angels now, and they’re watching over all of us now.”

  Trina stared at me, her eyes excited at first at the thought, but then her brow furrowed, and her little eyes wrinkled as much as little eyes can.

  “They . . . died?”

  Hearing the words come out of her lips caught me off guard. I hadn’t been able to use the ‘dead’ or ‘death’ or ‘died’ words. But she had.

  I nodded. “That’s right, Trini. So you won’t see them anymore – not in the physical sense, anyway. But whenever you see something that makes you smile or laugh, you’ll know that they’re smiling and laughing, too. That’s how it works. They feel your joy, and it gives them joy, too.”

  She nodded, and Gem smiled at me.

  “So when I’m happy, mommy and Jesse are happy? So if I’m happy all the time, so will they be?”

  “I’m pretty sure it works just like that. I know we’ll miss them, but I do have some picture albums here that we can look at when you want. And remember the video, too. Do you think that would make you sad, or do you think that would make you happy?”

  Trina smiled. “I’d be happy to see them on a video.”

  Charlie said, “I tell you what, Trina. We’re going to have a ceremony this morning where we get to say good bye to your mommy and sister. We’re all going to take something that means a lot to us, put it in a hole in the ground, and we say a prayer over it, then cover it up. And then we say a prayer for your mommy and sister, too. And you can bring wildflowers.”

  “Beaker means a lot to me. Can I bury him in the hole?”

  We all looked at one another in shock.

  “You k
new he died?” Hemp asked.

  “Yeah,” Trina said. “I found him yesterday. I figured it out.”

  “He was sick, baby,” Charlie said. “He’s at peace now. Sure you can bring him. We’ll put him in a little box and you can decorate it if you like.”

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll decorate it first, then we can put him in. I think that’s better.”

  Charlie laughed. “Yes. Makes much more sense. I’ll get you some markers and we’ll get the kitchen cleaned up while you prepare the box.”

  *****

  The ceremony was short and sweet. We’d all been through enough. Last night, Hemp and Charlie had wrapped Jamie’s body tightly in stretch wrap that’s normally used for palletized goods, making the cocoon airtight. They then dug the hole, put her in the grave, and covered her with about two feet of dirt. Two more feet remained to be filled, so as far as Trina knew, this was just a symbolic hole.

  I had a tee-shirt from a Billy Vera and the Beaters concert that Jamie had given me, and I put that in the grave. Gem had a tattered copy of Watership Down that she had left at my place before we split up, and was delighted to find it. She knew it was the perfect tribute to her Rabbit, so she kissed it and dropped it in as well.

  Hemp had picked up some Earl Grey tea at the store, and threw two teabags in – one for Jesse and one for Jamie. His British contribution.

  And following in my footsteps, Charlie tossed in her beloved AC/DC concert tee shirt.

  And finally, in a gloriously decorated little cardboard box, Trina knelt down and dropped the box containing her lost pup Beaker into the hole.

  We stood back in silence, and I closed my eyes.

  “We honor the lives of Jamie and Jesse, the love they shared and the light they shined on this Earth. As we stand here missing them in our hearts and souls, we also turn our faces to the heavens and know they’re looking down upon us with love and hope for the future. God bless the two newest angels – our guardian angels – whose presence will give us comfort for the remainder of our lives.”

  Tears streamed down the faces of each of us. We all came together, arms around one another, and when our group embrace met its natural conclusion, Hemp and I picked up the shovels and began filling in the hole.

  When the earth was mounded over the grave, Trina took the handful of tiny wildflowers she’d found and put them in the center of the grave.

  She was a brave, strong little girl, like her mommy and sister. My heart ached for the loss we shared.

  Then we all began walking back to the house.

  Gem and Charlie got there first, with Trina between them, swinging on their hands. Hemp and I brought up the rear, our guns over our shoulders.

  The girls had entered the house already, but when Hemp and I were twenty feet from the door, we heard a sound from beyond the tree line.

  A snapping, crackling sound, the sound of a tree branch rustling. Startled moans.

  Then again. And again.

  The moans were constant now.

  I looked toward the forest, then back at Hemp, then checked my gun even as he checked his. We both had additional magazines on us.

  “You and me,” I said. “Now.”

  “You’ve got to warn them,” Hemp said.

  He was right and I knew it. I ran to the door and stuck my head in. “Stay inside, get your weapons and wait for us.”

  Gem looked at me, her face pale. “Flex, what is –”

  “No time,” I interrupted. “Be ready, but stay inside.”

  I rejoined Hemp and we jogged toward the forest.

  *****

  As we ducked under the low-hanging branches, we scanned the line of traps. The four we could see had all snagged zombies. Three males and one female struggled against the snares, but to no avail. Hemp ran toward the first one and fired a shot into the thing’s brain and it fell still.

  I didn’t like going in, but we’d committed. I ran to the second trap and as the woman-creature floundered there, snarling, snapping, and trying to scratch me with her remaining fingernails, I fired directly into her face, destroying it, and the brain behind it. That one also fell motionless.

  And then we heard rustling all around us. I looked up to see twenty – no, at least thirty of them closing in.

  We were surrounded.

  Hemp ran to me, and we positioned ourselves back-to-back, our guns held up.

  And we worked our way through magazine after magazine of ammo, knowing we would run out before they were all dead.

  “The girls,” I said, turning my head toward Hemp.

  “I know,” Hemp replied, in between shots.

  “God help them,” I said. “Please, let there be a God to help them.”

  I fired my weapon with intensity, exploding the heads of the zombies approaching me and Hemp from all sides, and I felt his back against me reverberating as he did the same.

  My eyes glanced at the sky, and for just a brief moment, I prayed that the guardian angels that were once my Jesse and Jamie – the ones we promised Trina were there – really existed, that they were really looking down on us, and that they were truly guarding us.

  All of us.

  A new chapter of our war with the walking dead had begun.

  The End

  (Of The Beginning)

  Other Books By Eric A. Shelman

  And Dolphin Moon Publishing

  Dead Hunger II: The Gem Cardoza Chronicle

  Dead Hunger III: The Chatsworth Chronicles

  Dead Hunger IV: Evolution

  Dead Hunger V: The Road to California

  Dead Hunger VI: The Gathering Storm

  Dead Hunger VII: The Reign of Isis

  Out of the Darkness: The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson

  Case #1: The Mary Ellen Wilson Files

  A Reason To Kill

  Dead Hunger

  Generation Evil

  The Camera: Bloodthirst

  “Like” Eric A. Shelman’s Author page on Facebook!

  (On Facebook, Search “Eric A. Shelman, Author”)

  Dying Days

  Armand Rosamilia

  Copyright © 2011 by:

  Armand Rosamilia

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  Cover Illustration copyright 2011-2014 by Ash Arceneaux

  www.asharceneaux.deviantart.com

  This book was built at IndieWrites.com. Visit us on Facebook.

  This one goes to

  The Extreme Zombie Readers…

  Jeff Beesler, M.J. O’Neill and Robert Clark

  I couldn’t have done this one without you Undead Three…

  And to the real Darlene Bobich, the inspiration and name-sake herein…

  Dying Days

  Chapter 1

  Lazy Eye held the pistol to Darlene’s head and licked his lips. “I said to take your fucking clothes off.”

  Darlene held her hands up and away from her body. “Is that a two-twenty six?”

  Lazy Eye looked confused. He shook the pistol and motioned at her with his free hand. “I won’t ask again.”

  “I think you’re right about that.” Darlene slipped her head down and to the left, bringing her extended fingers up and into his throat. Before he’d even stumbled she had gripped his arm, dislodged the pistol and heard his shoulder pop out of its socket.

  Lazy Eye went to scream but she covered his mouth, drove her knee into his stomach, and picked up the pistol in seconds.

  “Shut the fuck up or I will shoot you, motherfucker.” She had no intention of actually shooting him, since they were surrounded by undead. None of them were close enough to be an immediate threat, but they were there. The gunshot would get them moving toward her for miles out here.

  Under her the man struggled vainly. Darlene pointed the pistol at his head and he finally took the hint and stopped struggling. “This is a Sig Sauer 226 model, and
a nice one at that. You don’t strike me as being a Navy SEAL or a Texas Ranger, so I’m guessing you found it. Too bad. It’s an excellent piece. Mind if I keep it?”

  Lazy Eye didn’t say anything. His good eye focused on her face before looking down at her dangling boobs at eye level. He licked his lips again.

  “Idiot.” She sat up, pulled a hunting knife from her boot and shook her head. “Here you go; the last thing you’ll ever see.” With that she pulled her dirty T-shirt top up and revealed her tits to the man, who openly drooled on the ground.

  “Nice, I know.” Darlene leaned close to him and just as his fingertip brushed against her hard left nipple she plunged the blade into his stomach and twisted. He gurgled as she drove the blade deeper into him and Darlene closed her eyes and tried to think of happy thoughts. She couldn’t and began to cry softly. As much as a scumbag as this guy was, he was still living and didn’t deserve to die. “Better you than me,” she mumbled. She cursed herself for not hearing him sneak up on her to begin with. So busy scanning the distance for the dead she’d not heard the living until he was on her.

  At this point in the game the only people still living were usually those stealthy enough, fast enough or lucky enough to keep from being ripped apart. Lazy Eye had obviously been lucky until today.

  She cleaned the blade on his clothes and checked him for supplies, food, anything. He had nothing in his pockets. His boots were too big for him and he wore three pairs of socks despite being out in the Florida heat of summer. “Where did you come from?” she whispered to his lifeless body before doing the horrific task of sawing through his neck with her knife to keep him from reanimating and trying to rape her again.