After Zombie Series (Book 2): Before

by Gregory, Samantha

  “Give me a minute,” he said.

  I stood up to start climbing again. Something moved near my head and I heard a hissing sound. I jumped back as Candace reared up over the seat.

  I started climbing up on the other side, “Danny move! She’s here.”

  Reaching the top, I climbed out through the door. I slipped and rolled down a hill to the bottom of the bus. It sat at a 45 degree angle in the sand.

  “Danny! Get out of there,” I screamed.

  One of the windows shattered and Candace rolled out into the sand. Why didn’t I think of that?

  Black bile running down her chin, she rose to her feet, dragging one leg behind her.

  She opened her mouth and let out an ear splitting scream into the night. The noise was deafening. Covering my ears, I ran across the sand away from her. My ears still ringing, I tried to climb back up to the road.

  Candace caught me and grabbed my ankle. She dragged me toward her, mouth open wide, ready to sink her teeth into me.

  “No!” I lashed out with my other foot, hitting her in the mouth. I lifted a handful of sand and threw it into her face. The creature shook its head wildly, trying to clear the sand from its eyes.

  I crawled away, searching the ground desperately for a weapon. It didn’t take Candace long to recover and she was on me.

  Pinning me down, she bared her teeth. I managed to get one hand free and tried to hold her back. I wasn’t going to turn into one of those things. Sobbing, I dug my nails into Candace face, but she didn’t appear to feel it. She shrieked again.

  Teeth gnashing, she closed in on my throat and I screamed.

  *

  Danny

  A loud scream pierced the air as I struggled to free myself from the bus. What the hell was that? That wasn’t Jack.

  Wriggling through the window, I saw Candace about to take a bite out of Jack. I grabbed a chunk of metal from inside the bus and swung it at her head. She moved and I caught her in the cheek. She wailed like a banshee and lunged at me. I swung again and brought it down on her head, just like she had done to Lela. Her skull caved in from the blow. So long Candi Sweet.

  She collapsed back on top of Jack. I rolled her out of the way to check on Jack. She was covered in blood and cuts.

  “Jack, were you bit?”

  She was sobbing, but she shook her head. Relief flooded through me. She was okay. I pulled her up and hugged her.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I said. She clung to me, as I tried to soothe her.

  “Is she dead?” she cried.

  “Yes, we’re okay.”

  “I can’t take this anymore,” she said.

  I took her face in my hands, “We’ll be okay,” I said again. I kissed her.

  Her eyes widened in surprise.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. That was a boneheaded move, but I was just glad she was okay.

  “Don’t move,” someone said.

  I looked up to find Breton’s number two standing over us with a gun.

  “Oh, shit,” I muttered.

  “Get up, now,” he ordered.

  We did as we were told. I tried to shield Jack.

  “You are coming with me boy,” he said.

  “What about Jack?” I asked.

  “I don’t have any need for her,” he said. He pointed the gun at her. I shoved her as the gun went off. She screamed in pain as the bullet struck her shoulder.

  “You son of a bitch,” I yelled. I ran at him and tackled him. We both grappled for the gun.

  Punching him in the face, I reached for it. He drove an elbow into my ribs, knocking the wind out of me.

  I rolled away from him and crawled towards it. A fist came down on my kidney making me scream. He reached over me and picked up the gun.

  Back on his feet, he leveled it at me, “I was ordered to bring you in, but I don’t think I want to do that.”

  “Bite me,” I muttered.

  He took the safety off the gun, just as a jet whooshed overhead. It was headed straight for Trinity. A minute later, an explosion rocked the night. I felt the vibrations of it through the ground as I shielded myself.

  Flames erupted into the air.

  Snow was staring at the fire, looking stunned. I got up and kicked the gun from his hand. He broke out of his stupor and ran at me. I went down and he began punching me in the face.

  A gunshot went off nearby. Snow turned to see Dr. Kettering now had the gun. He had a bleeding head wound.

  “Let him go,” the doc said.

  “You meddling fool. You just can’t let anything go, can you?”

  “Lance? Finally worked your way to the top? I should have known a little worm like you would get there eventually?”

  “Don’t pretend it wasn’t a job you were interested in too.”

  The doc’s face gave him away. I thought he was a scientist. I didn’t know he wanted to be in charge of a bunch of people content to make deadly viruses for a living.

  “That was before I knew the damage that was being done.”

  “You done enough of it yourself,” Lance said.

  “Shut up.”

  “They just blew up the town, how long before they do a sweep to take out any strays. You will be top of the list.”

  The doc glanced back at the town, then he pulled the trigger. Lance dropped to the ground.

  I struggled up, “You killed him.”

  “He’d happily kill any of us. If we let him live, he would have run back to Breton and told him everything.”

  He still held the gun. When he saw me looking at it, he lowered it.

  “Jack,” I said. I ran to her side. She was unconscious and bleeding.

  “We need to get her to a hospital.”

  The doc nodded, “We’ll take Snow’s truck.”

  He helped me lift Jack up and into the truck. She moaned in pain, but didn’t open her eyes. I sat in the back cradling her as the doc drove. I didn’t think I could take another person dying on me. Especially not her.

  “Just hang on,” I whispered to her, “We’ll get you help.”

  I didn’t know a lot about first aid, but I knew I had to try and stop the bleeding. I pressed my hands over the wound, knowing how far it was to the nearest town, terrified we wouldn’t make it.

  “Drive faster,” I said.

  “I am,” the doc replied.

  I still couldn’t get over what he had done back there. Snow deserved it, but seeing someone being shot like that, was horrible. He was human or what passed as one I guess.

  I noticed I was shivering. “Can you turn the heat on?”

  The doc glanced at me, “Danny, you might be in shock.”

  I laughed. I would be surprised if I wasn’t. Exhaustion washed over me.

  “Drive faster,” I said again.

  After a while, my eyes began to close. My head tipped forward, but I jerked awake again a second later. I needed to keep the pressure on Jack’s wound.

  I wondered if the bullet was still in her shoulder. I should have reacted sooner back there, before Snow was able to shoot. He had got what he deserved. Breton deserved it too. I had no doubt that he was a long way away from Trinity when it was blown off the map. All those people back there. Lela’s grandmother, assuming she survived getting captured, she would never know what happened to her granddaughter. Lela’s body lay in the desert. It had most likely been destroyed in the blast.

  Damn it, there had been people back there who weren’t zombies. Innocent people who never asked for any of this.

  Hot tears began to fall. I didn’t care if it took the rest of my life; I was going to make Breton pay for this. Someone needed to bring him and his whole company down once and for all.

  Jack moaned softly.

  “Everything is going to be okay,” I whispered to her. “I promise, I won’t let anything else happen to you.”

  *

  Marcus

  When my cell phone buzzed, I expected it to be something from Candace. She could never let anyth
ing go, but she had to understand that I couldn’t work miracles and as an agent, I needed to make money. Candace Sweet was over.

  I found an email from her along with an attachment. Knowing I would regret it, I leaned back on the couch and opened the attachment.

  It was a video file. Rolling my eyes, I opened it.

  Candace’s face appeared on the screen. She began her little rant about how awful her life was yadda yadda yadda. I was sorely tempted to just delete it, but I stuck it out. If she decided to sue me, then I could use this as evidence of harassment.

  The video jumped to Candace sitting in what looked like a diner. Now she was moaning about the service and the food. The image flipped to show a man across the room. He was growling and looked ill.

  The man came towards Candace and I could hear her scream. I sat up, engrossed now. What the hell was happening?

  When the man attacked some curly haired guy, I couldn’t believe my eyes. He started eating him.

  “Oh, my God,” I whispered.

  Candace recorded more footage as she went through the town. More crazy people attacking others. Dead bodies, soldiers, gunfights. She had hit the jackpot here.

  I reached for my home phone, still watching the video. I dialed her number. It went straight to voicemail.

  “Candace, where are you? Call me back now. This is amazing. I take back everything I said, but if this is some kind of prank, I’ll make sure you never get another agent. Call me.”

  I hung up as Candace appeared on screen in a bathroom. She showed her hand to the camera.

  Oh crap, she was bit.

  I was getting a bad feeling about her not answering me now. After she switched off the camera in the bathroom, the footage came to an end. I tried to remember the name of the town. Trinity was it?

  I typed it into the search engine. A set of news headlines came up. Tragedy in Trinity. Mass explosion destroys town.

  This screamed cover up. Grabbing my phone, I called the operator. “Yes, I need the number for Channel 5 news.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Danny

  I paced up and down the hospital hallway as we waited on news about Jack. The doc sat on a chair, staring at a wall. He hadn’t spoken much since we arrived. They had whisked Jack away and we had to pretend that we didn’t know what happened to her.

  We couldn’t give out any insurance details either.

  “They’re going to call the cops,” I said.

  “Huh?” the doc said.

  “The cops. Gunshot wounds need to be reported. What are we going to do if they start asking questions?”

  “Just relax, Danny. We’ll tell them we don’t know anything.”

  “They’ll run our names. I have priors,” I said.

  “Something tells me that the local police will have bigger things to worry about right now than this,” the doc said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “This is the closest town to Trinity, after what happened there, they will be all over that.”

  He was probably right, but I couldn’t relax. I felt a tight feeling in my chest and light headed. I struggled to breath. Falling to my knees, I felt fear overtake me.

  A nurse appeared and told me to put my head between my legs.

  “It’s just an anxiety attack,” the doc said.

  I got it under control.

  “Maybe you could give him a sedative,” the doc suggested, “He’s been through a lot.”

  “No,” I said. I didn’t want one. “I want to know if Jack’s okay,” I said.

  “She’s still in surgery. You should get some rest,” the nurse said.

  “No, I want to see her.”

  I lurched to my feet and down the hall, trying to find her.

  “Where is she?” I yelled.

  The doc grabbed my arm and tried to stop me.

  “Get off me,” I snapped.

  Two orderlies appeared, “Come on, buddy, just calm down.”

  I fought against them, but the managed to get me down on a bed and I felt something prick my arm. Everything went hazy and I passed out.

  *

  One week later

  Breton

  I stood at the window, watching the world below. From up here they all looked like ants. And to me, they were. Miserable little minions, who knew nothing about the world and how it was run. They had no idea what true power was, not like I did. I used to think it was money that made me powerful; I certainly had enough of it. But the real power came from something else. Fear.

  While I held the virus, I could make world leaders and even nations bend to my will. It was the ultimate power, one I hoped to fine tune to make it even better.

  Of course to do that, I needed the vials returned to me.

  As if on cue, there was a knock on my office door. I said, “Come.”

  The door opened and footsteps shuffled into the room. Even without speaking, I could feel the fear coming from the man behind me. Which was why, I was surprised to find, when I finally turned around, a smile of Kettering’s face.

  Hiding my shock, I stepped forward, “So smug, Henry. Tell me, why is that?”

  He moved to the bar and poured himself a scotch. Taking a seat in front of the desk, he took a sip before answering, “It took a long time, but I finally got one over on you.”

  “Just because you hid the virus, doesn’t mean…”

  “It was my virus!” Henry snapped, “My project, my life’s work and you took it away from me because of that damn conscience of yours.”

  “You were the one advocating human trials. You were responsible for the trials in Afghanistan, against my orders. It was you that fed your lies to that intern and had him steal it. You think I didn’t know about your little spies, the bugs you managed to get into the building?”

  Henry grinned, “It was the only way I could find out what was going on. It’s ironic really, after all these years you are finally coming round to my way of thinking and I took the virus right out from under your nose.”

  “No, you manipulated a couple of children into getting it for you. What’s the matter Henry, afraid of getting your hands dirty?” I asked.

  “It was a calculated risk. You would have been expecting me.”

  “And where are your little puppets now?”

  “Hancock building, 27th floor, apartment D. I have no use for them now. Do what you want with them.”

  His callousness surprised even me. He really had gone over the edge. We started out in the company together, even though I was the boss’ son, we had been friends. But he always had to push it. He always had to go that step further, claiming it was for science. It wasn’t, it was for his own personal glory.

  “Where is the virus?” I asked.

  “Hidden. You’ll never find it and I have it set up that it will be destroyed if I don’t return to it soon. Your zombies from Trinity have been destroyed. You have no access to the virus at all. It is my work now and I will continue my research.”

  I had a gun in my drawer to the left. I could use it and take him out right now.

  “I know what you’re thinking, but you won’t do it. Not when you think there’s a chance for you to still get it back,” he said.

  “What do you want?”

  “Money, for starters and my own space to work. Once I’m happy you’re playing ball, I’ll consider sharing some of my research with you.”

  I should have known. It seemed that money had won out over fear this time. With little other choice I reached for my checkbook. As I did, my phone rang. I picked it up.

  “Breton.”

  As I listened, a slow smile crossed my face. I hung up the phone.

  Henry was happily sipping on my scotch, oblivious as to what was going on outside. I opened the drawer. My hand hovered over my checkbook, then I reached for the gun. I raised it, pointing it at Henry, watching as his smug smile vanished.

  I squeezed the trigger, shooting him in the chest. He tipped out of his chair onto the floor. I st
epped around the desk.

  He was clutching the wound, breathing hard, “You fool, you would rather get revenge than the virus?”

  “At 5:03am a man was admitted to the local hospital. He died shortly afterwards. Unfortunately for the staff and patients, he got up again soon after.”

  Henry’s eyes widened in shock, “No, that’s not possible, the virus is secure.”

  “There have been a dozen confirmed cases across this side of the country in the past few days. I already have people collecting the infected as we speak. I don’t need you and I don’t need the virus,” I said.

  He held out his hand to stop me, “No, please think about this. You need me, I can come back and work for you.”

  “Not interested, but thanks for letting me know where Spratt is. He’ll come in useful.”

  I pulled the trigger again.

  Buzzing through to my assistant, I said, “Georgia, send someone up from housekeeping.”

  “Yes, Mr. Breton.”

  “And make sure the safe house is prepared for my arrival.”

  “Of course, Mr. Breton,” she said.

  I picked up the phone and dialed my son’s number. When he answered I could hear loud rock music playing in the background.

  “Hello?” he slurred.

  “Where are you?”

  “At a party,” he said, then laughed like it was the funniest thing ever. He was probably still partying from last night.

  “Sober up and meet me at the house. We are leaving the city.”

  “What? I’m not going anywhere with you, I’m busy.”

  “Eddie!” I snapped, “This is serious. Do as I say.”

  He sighed angrily, “This better be good.”

  He hung up on me. Eddie always was a handful, but he had gotten worse in the last few years. I rarely spoke to his mother anymore and he seemed to favor her. We were for all intents and purposes still married, but we didn’t live together. She had her life and I made sure she was well kept in return for certain public appearances from her from time to time.

  Once we were out of this city, I was going to straighten him out once and for all. He was my heir, one day he would take over the company and I’d be damned if he was going to do it while acting like an idiot. The world was falling apart. It was time he stepped up and acted like a man.