by Hamrick, R M
The Chasing Trilogy
Chasing a Cure
Chasing Redemption
Chasing Extinction
RM HAMRICK
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover design by Covers by Christian
Editing by Sticks and Stones Editing
Chasing a Cure
Copyright © 2017 RM HAMRICK
Chasing Redemption
Chasing Extinction
Copyright © 2018 RM HAMRICK
All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Book One: Chasing a Cure
Book Two: Chasing Redemption
Book Three: Chasing Extinction
Book One: Chasing a Cure
CHAPTER ONE
Audra looked past the makeshift shelter to the soft drops of rain. She knew it could devolve into a sudden storm and bring down their hovel of fence sections and tree branches. But for now, it was almost pleasant. Audra imagined the place would not be much smaller with a collapse. The three inhabitants already crawled on top of each other. For a moment, she took a deep breath and appreciated the structure’s ability to hide them from the biters, and the rain’s patter to mask her mom’s quiet groans and her older sister’s whimpers.
Now was as good a time as any.
In the isolated wood with no biters in sight, Audra turned her attention to her mother’s leg. The pant leg had been cut to her high thigh weeks ago to dress the wound. It had been redressed several times now, but it was still difficult to separate the flesh from the dressing. Her dad’s quick actions had stopped the bleeding at the scene, but now Audra wished upon everything it would bleed again. Instead a smelly, hot ooze had taken over. Dad was gone now, but Audra did not need his life’s wisdom to know the same incident that took his life would also take her mom’s.
As Audra cleaned the wound, her dark auburn hair fell over her green eyes, despite its sticky dirt and grease. Her mom allowed her to help today. A few days before, she had sent them away, in order to cut out the dying flesh and drain the wound herself. She had wanted to protect her twelve- and sixteen-year-old girls from the harshness of near-death, but Audra would have been able to handle it. She was always stoic, even before all this happened, never crying over scraped knees or unfair treatment. But still, her mother had insisted that she did not need to cut dead tissue from a wound. Now Belinda lay in her mother’s arms, positioned away from the injured leg. The daughter gazed into her mother’s face, searching for comfort. She didn’t notice how warm her mother had gotten or what was unfolding around her.
It wasn’t even a bite.
It was just an infected cut, maybe from a poor machete swing. No one remembered in the frenzy of the attack. And wandering through the woods with no supplies, it was impossible to keep it clean. The cleaning and re-wrapping were a futile effort. No sterile sutures or bandaging, no antibiotics. They did not even have clean water. Audra assessed the wound one last time and decided. She met her mom’s eyes. The infection had not taken the grit from them. She nodded her agreement above Belinda’s head, out of her sight. It was not supposed to happen this way. As a family, they had survived the initial outbreak. They were surviving. Their days had become routine, normal. Audra packed without a word to her sister, careful to hide items of comfort behind for their mother.
Now a new normal would take over.
It was not long before Belinda noticed the change in routine and her panic floated to the surface. It was never far. The mom held her oldest tight and gave her small kisses on her forehead. Belinda’s cries only got louder. Once again, she looked to her youngest.
“Take care of your sister. You’re all she has left.”
Audra nodded her promise and continued packing supplies. The rain might stop soon and they would need plenty of time to set up camp before night fell.
A noise stopped her rummaging.
Belinda whimpered and her mother hushed her. Outside, one crept past, none the wiser of the lean-to in the rain. Audra watched from inside. The zombie’s jaw, unhinged and off-center, gathered water. The skin on his face was swollen and distended from his time spent exposed. His pant leg caught on a root as he walked past. With his leg dragging, the mirror image of her mother soon wandering the woods came unbidden.
* * *
“Look, dude. I saw him first,” Audra shouted into the woods toward the man.
She caught side glimpses of him through the brush. He was easy to spot with a large green backpack slowing him down. Her first pursuer was directly behind her. All six feet of him seemed to lean forward from his ankles to reach her. A blood stain darkened the arm of his business suit. He was a perfect specimen aside from a small tear at the corner of his mouth. Nothing a few stitches couldn’t fix. His shambling chase did not worry Audra. The man running alongside them in the isolated woods did. She stole another glance and tried to size him up. She did not recognize him or know his intentions, but he was trying to cut them off.
This newcomer could foil her plan to take off around a hill bend and come back behind the zom to tag him with her biometric reader. He could cut over to snipe her find. Whoever scanned first received Finder’s Rights. All was fair in the game of tagging, but that didn't mean she wouldn't be pissed. This was her find.
She would at least make it more difficult for him.
Audra picked up speed and teased her zom to follow. Soon they were moving at a quick pace. She could hear both men in the heavy woods laboring to keep up, tripping, and bumbling. The backpack was too big for chases through the branches and brambles. No wonder he was trying to poach her find. And this was a good one. He looked like he came from a wealthy family. Someone could be looking for him.
She heard a big “Oomph” followed by a crash. One of them had tripped hard. Audra glanced back again. The zombie, nonplussed by the sound, still focused on her backside. With his visual and olfactory senses locked in, hearing became less important. She veered to the left, away from their fallen pursuer. A minute later she looked back and saw no signs of him. She noticed her zombie’s shoe had fallen off. His black-socked foot stomped over rocks and sticks.
She did not want to damage the goods.
She took off into a sprint and disappeared behind a big oak tree. The zombie grunted in anger and continued in his same direction, not having enough reasoning skills to change his mind. As he passed the oak tree, Audra was ready with her silver handheld reader. She scraped the sharp comb along the back of the neck, above his falling suit collar. He turned, and she fended him off as she retracted the comb into the device for analysis. She elbowed him. When he twisted around, she kicked the back of his knee. He fell to the ground, face smashing first.
She sat on his back. Her foot contacted the back of his head, more to muffle his angry noises than to keep herself safe. She pulled out a prickly pear pad from her bag to munch on while she waited for the reader to analyze the DNA.
*BING, BING* came the beautiful sound, the sound of money.
“Let’s see who wants to pay for you, my friend,” she directed toward the zom underfoot with a renewed smile on her face. The thought of his torn mouth flashed into her mind. She should not push his face too far into the ground. He was worth money now, and the better his physical condition, the better the payout.
The readout display had text stats on her find. Every person’s DNA had been cataloged for almost 25 years before the outbreak. And now that information was used to determine if your corpse body
would be awakened or if you would continue to roam the countryside, a remnant of your former self. Today was her and Randolph Ludington’s lucky day.
Name: Randolph Ludington
Gender: Male
DOB: 5/29/2043
Status: Deposit paid
There were three potential status findings: No Inquiries, Inquired, and Deposit Paid. A deposit started the wake-up process - if, by process, you meant negotiation.
Audra punched the FOUND key as she settled onto her zombie seat. The usual survey followed, documenting body condition, difficulty of capture (in this case, already captured), and distance from Lysent headquarters. Audra typed in the answers as she chewed on the end of the cactus pad. It was her last prepared one. She would have to be on the lookout for more.
It would take a while for Lysent to contact the depositor and negotiate a price. She surveyed her surroundings. Was the stranger still lurking around to snatch her zom? Technically now that she had pressed FOUND, she was the only one entitled to the corporation’s payout through Finder’s Rights. But there were always loopholes. If poaching was enticing earlier, it was now even more tempting. Any zombie with ‘No Inquiry’ status would be left to roam with a yellow serial tag on his ear. Audra’s attachment to him showed his value. It was time to find a camp, away from here and close to water.
She leaned forward, moving from her rear to a kneel, pushing each knee into a shoulder. She inched the bartered handmade leather mask over his face, taking care that her fingers did not slip near his teeth. One bite and she would be infected and wandering the woods, too. Some taggers removed the teeth, and the awakened person would be given dentures afterward. Keeping him intact would yield a better payout. Audra tightened the lacing of the mask and finished with a Carrick bend like her father had taught her. She got off the zom’s back and pulled up on the knot to bring him to his knees. The mask had an eye slot, but for now, she threw a small cloth sack over his head to block his view and calm him. He could still smell her though. The mask muffled his noises, but his arms reached wide to find the source of the smell. She grabbed and bound his hands in front of him with soft, wide cloth to prevent injuries to his limbs. Prices dropped fast with amputations. The cure could not regrow limbs or extensive tissue. She hitched a long lead to his binding.
With his arms bound and his nickname chosen, Audra pulled the cloth sack off Randy’s head so they could walk without stumbling - too much.
Audra knew the Georgia woods, or what was left of Georgia. Really, the only townships this far south belonged to Lysent. The goal was a secluded spot where she could start a fire and have a nice campsite without being found by others. If she was stuck with Randy for a few days, at least she should be able to enjoy it. Sometimes she would travel with a zom toward Lysent before a negotiation's end, but the date of Randy’s deposit was old. His family’s circumstances may have changed. She wanted to be out here if his deal did not go through. The land near Lysent was already well hunted. Besides, Randy was so demure, she could handle at least one more zombie if she found it in time. She was sure Randy would love another travel buddy.
Audra was stuck working for Lysent. Most of the time, money never exchanged hands between her and the corporation. She had indebted herself to them as an indentured tagger. She could ask for a payout when she needed to buy items, but it lengthened her employment. It seemed like a never-ending battle anyway, as she incurred more debt each day.
Audra tried not to think about it.
Randy grunted as he caught on a high root that Audra had missed. The rope gave a quick tug and Audra jumped ahead to miss his fall. Over the last two years, she had become adept at feeling the tautness and looseness of her lead. His cadence, the vibrations of his steps, his unfortunate scent all gave her information.
They walked eight miles plus another two to find a good camping spot. Audra controlled most of the conversation. She tried to guess Randy’s occupation before his unfortunate accident (Were you a stockbroker, Randy?). His suit gave away that he was in the initial outbreak. Once people learned there was a disease sweeping the country that turned you into a cannibal, they stopped donning suits. She complimented him on his obviously successful efforts to stay in one piece. Most of his colleagues had since decomposed beyond what was salvageable.
The conversation ended for a while as Audra set up camp. She tied him to a thick sapling, threw down her pop up tent, and gathered wood for her fire. As she roasted her found hickory nuts, the sun set behind the trees and the woods darkened. She set her eyes on the fire, but kept her ears on the forest past the fire’s crackle and Randy’s shuffling. Was someone out there? Another zombie would be nice, another tagger would be bad, to wildlife she was neutral. Any large predators had plenty to eat with the zombies walking around. They were easier prey.
“I wish we had marshmallows to toast, Randy. Do you remember marshmallows?”
Zombies required nutrition, but marshmallows wouldn’t cut it. The virus stimulated the brain’s hunger response only toward non-infected humans, as a way for it to spread through the bodily fluid exchange of bites. The virus attacked higher brain structures, leaving parts responsible for survival and basic movement functioning. The heart pumped. The lungs breathed. And the five senses seemed intact. But it all happened at a slower pace. The slowed breathing and heart rate diminished the amount of oxygen delivered to the body. The bodies began to look dead, sagging and decaying. With their bodies running at such low capacities, it took an extended amount of time for them to starve to death, over a year in fact by Lysent’s estimations. The cure couldn’t awaken the actual dead, only those infected with the virus.
When had Randy eaten last? She wondered.
* * *
“I wish we had marshmallows to toast,” said Audra.
Her voice tried to lighten the mood, but her eyes remained dark staring at the sparks coming off the fire. Belinda hunched over the fire Audra had built, crying like she had for the last three days. Her blond hair clung to her face with the wetness, her peripheral vision lost. Audra did not know you could shed that many tears and still maintain your eyeballs’ shape. At least the tears streamed without noisy broadcast, only an odd sniffle timed with footfalls as she followed Audra through the woods. Audra offered her water again to compensate for the continual dehydration from her eyes. Belinda swiped and yanked the bottle from her hand. Her eyes like wet ice, flashed with anger.
“How can you even think about sweets?”
Audra ignored the comment. She had ignored a lot of comments in the three days since they had left their mother. Despite that having been their mom’s idea and insistence, Belinda blamed Audra. She had forced Belinda to desert her mother and now they were alone. Audra did not cry, and that angered Belinda, but Belinda did enough crying for the both of them. Someone needed to stay aware and her mom had chosen her.
No reason to set up their crappy makeshift tarp-on-sticks. There would be no rain tonight. Audra took all their soft things and put them on the ground in a pile. The navy sky filled with stars and planets. That was one of the few good things to emerge from the loss of the modern world. No more light pollution. Satellites flew through the dome of visible space. They kept their orbits, useless and irrelevant.
Belinda moved from her spot and curled up against Audra. Her head felt heavy on Audra’s chest. Her hair tickled her nose. Her body felt warm and soft.
“I love you, Audra.”
The words were whispered into her chest, almost inaudible. It was hard to stay mad at her. Her blue eyes would go wide at any sign of trouble and her body would freeze. She bubbled with emotion and fear. The new world only amplified these characteristics. But it was easy to care for the beautiful girl with the sweet smile. Audra often forgot herself that Belinda was four years her senior. She cared for her like a younger sister.
“I love you,” Audra repeated as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the brief reprieve.
* * *
Audra’s eyes opened with the dawn
. She could not imagine sleeping through the deafening roar of the birds. Even the late ones woke with the sun. Audra peeled herself off the floor and threw her pack outside. She broke down the tent and put it in her bag. Even having a “camp” meant being ready to run at a moment’s notice. It had taken months to find a tent, and she was not about to abandon it because of some damn zom herd. She said good morning to Randy and asked if he would like any coffee. He declined, which was a good thing because she had none. Coffee beans were expensive as hell. And not fresh. Audra disliked coffee as a child before the outbreak. She had not grown to enjoy it as an expensive, watered-down luxury.
Audra pulled her food down from where she had hung it from a tree. Despite plenty of slow-moving flesh, bears still went for easy picnic baskets. She opened the pack and did the math. Math and food had become second nature to her. She knew how much she needed to eat each day to be comfortable. She did not double-check her math when she came up short. She was always short, but she did not need much today - no running if she could help it. She decided to forage for breakfast.
She told Randy to guard their empty camp spot. On second thought, she dropped him to the ground and bound his feet. She did not want him making too much noise with another runner around. Pain in the ass Randy. He was such a good walker though. She secured his limbs and let him rest on the forest floor. She pulled on her pack and began exploring.
The forest exploded with nuts and berries with the late spring weather. She collected her favorites along with some greens. She snacked on them as she continued around the area, looking for signs of another zombie or human. A mile out, she saw signs of trampling as if a zom or a careless hiker had passed through… or both. The question was soon answered.
The unmistakable “Rawnrerr” of a zombie and the grunts of a human echoed through the forest. The human sounded like he was struggling. Audra deftly maneuvered downhill to the source of the noises. Her scent was upwind, but Audra would have been surprised if anyone noticed. They were busy.
