Zombie Apocalypse Series Box Set, Vol. 2 [Books 4-7]

by DeGordick, Jeff

  Glass walked around and stopped in front of him, pulling his head up by his hair. He raised his other fist in the air and popped him square in the nose with it. Wayne's nose broke again and blood trickled out. He scrunched up his face in pain, squeezing his eyelids shut tight and trying to block out what he could.

  But Glass kept his presence ever persistent, and the pain was real; Sarah thought Kenny's torture had been cruel, but Jack Glass was on a whole new level. And when it came to his old friend Wayne, he took things slowly and made them personal.

  "It's so nice to have you back," he said. He placed a finger under Wayne's chin and tilted it up toward him as he towered over top of him. "You didn't think you could really get away from me, did you?"

  "I swear to God, if I get out of this chair, I'm going to kill you," Wayne barked.

  Glass laughed. He wound up his fist and punched Wayne in the stomach. He punched him so hard that Wayne vomited on his arm as his brain erupted in warning messages of extreme pain, causing a floating, dreamlike sensation in him. He gasped for breath as Glass stepped back and shook off his coat sleeve.

  "No matter," he said. "We'll have plenty of time to work out the details." He raised his giant fists and gave him a three-punch combination, keeping the strikes at various levels of force and keeping him guessing when and where they were going to come from.

  Wayne became disoriented and soon his head hung limply on his neck, his brain starting to shut down.

  But Glass always dialed it back, knowing exactly where Wayne's breaking point was. He had enjoyed torturing him for two months, and now he was going to do it again for the rest of Wayne's life, however long Glass decided that would be.

  Wayne lifted his head and spit blood on Glass's boot. "You're a real piece of work, Jackie," Wayne grunted. "I remember you when you were green. Don't you forget that it was me who pulled you up by your bootstraps and backed you up. You were always a big guy, but you were also the oaf. When people picked on you, who was there to help you out?"

  Glass smirked. He hadn't heard the name Jackie in a long time. He always hated it, but it was one of those nicknames that just stuck. But now it didn't bother him.

  He stepped on Wayne's bare feet with his boots, crushing them under his massive weight. Wayne gritted his teeth as Glass stood there, causing him agony. "And don't forget who repaid you in kind," he said. "But Jackie was a long time ago. He died when you decided you didn't want to be by your friend's side anymore. You turned your back on him, but even worse than that, you burned him down."

  Glass socked Wayne in the chin, and there was a little snap somewhere in his neck as his head violently slammed back and forth.

  Wayne let out a long, pained whine. He spit up more blood and tried to compose himself a little. "What's the endgame?" Wayne demanded. "You've already destroyed the world. Why keep going? What's the point?"

  Glass shot out his arm and grabbed Wayne by the throat. He started to lift him against his restraints, stretching his neck. "When you've stood in that fire," he said, "when you've had black smoke and lead dust coat your lungs, scarring them..."

  He continued to pull on Wayne's neck, and the restraints on his wrists became so tight that they drew blood.

  "...When you know what it's like to stand in the inferno and stare into Hell..."

  The discs in Wayne's spine started to separate and his face clenched in agony as something popped.

  "...When Hell stares back at you and you watch your entire world burn to ashes at your feet, you would understand how truly worthless all of it is."

  He let go of Wayne's throat and drove his fist into his face one last time with a vicious reverse punch. Wayne's skull fractured and he was knocked unconscious. His head rolled side to side and came to rest looking between his feet.

  Glass left the room and a couple of guards removed Wayne's restraints and dragged him to a separate cellblock away from Sarah. He came to on the way, and they tossed him in a similarly tiny prison cell. He groaned as he snaked around on the floor, and one of the guards turned and left. The other guard stayed behind to secure his door, and when his partner was out of sight, Jeb stepped into the cell and helped him sit up on the bench. He leaned forward and whispered something in Wayne's ear. The information temporarily pulled Wayne out of his nightmare and he nodded before Jeb turned around and locked his cell door.

  Glass stood out on his balcony in the middle of the night, a couple hours before the dawn. He stared out at the vast landscape and smiled as he heard the occasional distant scream. The carnage and destruction he sowed across the land had been so devastating and complete, and it surpassed even his expectations.

  Ron walked into his office and joined him on the balcony.

  "It's a perfect night," Glass told him as another gunshot and scream echoed in the distance.

  "Yes it is," Ron said with a smile. "Everything has gone according to plan."

  "Is everything ready to welcome your old friends?" he asked.

  "Yes," Ron said. "I'm making the appropriate arrangements now. After that, it'll be up to you what you do with them."

  "I assume you're not going to have any love lost for them?"

  "Not at all," Ron said.

  "Good. And what about the boy? You seem quite fond of him."

  "He really is quite the specimen," Ron admitted. "Although his level of health seems to be going down. Your usage of him has been quite taxing on him."

  "No matter," Glass replied. "His usefulness has run its course. He served his purpose, and I have no need of him anymore."

  Ron turned his head and swallowed.

  "What about his mother?" Ron asked.

  Glass smiled behind his mask. "Oh, I have something special in mind for her."

  18

  A Fated Reunion

  "I'm just worried about you," Jeb told her.

  "I know," Sandra said. "I didn't want to even come back here in the first place. You're so sweet and you risked your own life to get me out of here, and I come marching right back in. It must feel like a slap in the face."

  Jeb shook his head. "I obviously don't know all the details, but I know you have your reasons. I know this is all for an important cause. And if Sarah can..." Jeb looked behind him at the closed door of the janitor's closet they were hiding in. "...if Sarah can kill him, then it will all be worth it."

  "Yeah."

  "And then I'm gonna make it up to you," he said.

  Sandra smiled. "Oh yeah? What are you going to do for me?"

  "I'm going to take you away to the coast. We'll find a boat... I'll fix one up if I have to... and we'll sail out on the water. We can go anywhere you want... find some small island and eat coconuts for the rest of our lives, run naked on a beach and make love all day."

  Sandra giggled. She ran her forefingers down his chest and leaned forward and kissed him. "How about a white picket fence?" she asked. "Maybe a couple of kids?"

  "If your friend really thinks that she can change how things are, then maybe," he said. "But that would take some major doing."

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in close so she could smell his aftershave. "It doesn't matter what we do or where we go; as long as I'm with you, then I'm happy."

  He smiled. "That makes two of us."

  The two of them shared a silent moment as they stared into each other's eyes in the eerie light of the flashlight that Jeb had turned on. They squeezed each other's hands, sharing a knowing look and silently wishing each other luck for the plan ahead.

  "Well, I think I should be off; it's almost time for me to do my part."

  "Just be safe out there," he said. "I would hate to see anything happen to you. You know I'd die if that happened."

  "I know," she said, tapping him on the nose. "You be safe, too. And when this is all over, I want you to sweep me off my feet and carry me out of here."

  "That's a promise."

  They leaned in and made out with each other for a minute, then they tidied up and snuck o
ut of the closet one at a time when the coast was clear. Jeb disappeared down one end of the first floor hallway, and Sandra walked the other way.

  The breakfast order came in for Glass shortly after that, and Sandra was called upon to bring it up to his private quarters. She walked into the kitchen, and the kitchen staff ignored her while she picked up the tray and left. The usual display of cutlery and condiments were laid out with the silver dome-topped plate resting in the middle. But Glass also drank tea in the mornings with sugar, and those were included on the tray as well.

  Sandra headed for the elevator behind the foyer to bring his breakfast up to him, and when she neared it, she passed Ron going the other way toward the restricted area and his quarters. They both looked straight ahead, and for the briefest of seconds their eyes crossed and they nodded at each other so imperceptibly that no one would have noticed unless they went over the interaction with a fine-tooth comb.

  Sandra waited at the elevator while the guard summoned it. They traveled up to the third floor and walked around the corner to the security checkpoint before Glass's office. Sandra set the tray down on the inspection table and patiently waited while they looked through all the food. The guard inspecting it lifted the dome on his breakfast plate and produced a small silver instrument that looked like a pair of tweezers, gently lifting some of the food and checking underneath. He rearranged the cutlery a bit and pushed around the condiments, then he lifted the lid of the teapot and shone the flashlight inside, inspecting the liquid. Finally, he used his little silver instrument to pick around the bowl of sugar cubes to make sure there was nothing hidden on the bottom. When he was satisfied, he nodded and the guard escorting her led her on toward Glass's quarters at the end of the hall.

  Sandra handed the tray to the guard with her while she stood in front of the two men standing watch over the door to Glass's room. She raised her arms and they patted her down like usual, and when they were satisfied, they gave a curt nod and Sandra took the breakfast tray back.

  It wasn't as bad as last time, but Sandra still felt her nerves flare up; she was already engaged in her part of the very intricate and important plan, and with the amount of pressure that was on her, she didn't want to screw it up. But she tried to keep her cool and look like everything was normal.

  When she had first returned to the mansion and she looked visibly nervous and shaken, that was to be expected as she knew she would be punished for running away. But if she had been especially nervous this morning for no apparent reason, that would arouse too much suspicion. So she kept her mind distracted while focusing enough to complete her duties with grace.

  One of the men guarding Glass's door opened it for her and she walked inside, her heels clicking on the floor.

  Glass sat in a chair by the window in the main sitting room, reading an old beat up copy of Moby Dick. He looked up cursorily at her, uninterested in anything other than breakfast this morning. "Put it on the table there," he said, then went back to his book.

  Sandra calmly walked forward and set the tray down on the main table in the sitting room. She rearranged the cutlery and the condiments so that everything was perfect, then she turned over his teacup and filled it with tea. Then she plucked out three sugar cubes, just how he liked it, and dropped them into the teacup, giving it a little stir with a spoon. When everything was in order, she turned and left his quarters as he ignored her.

  She walked past the two soldiers guarding his door and strolled down the hall. They stared at her ass as she went, looking sexy in her heels and maid's outfit. But in general, the two guards in front of the door and the other ones at the security checkpoint beyond Glass's office ahead of her didn't pay too much attention to her on the return trip, so none of them noticed a thing when she took the fake sugar cube she had taken from the bowl when she poured his tea and slipped it behind a vase, then she continued on and walked past the checkpoint, going back to the elevator.

  Wayne lay on his back across the short bench in his jail cell. It was just long enough to scrunch his feet and his head between the walls, and it was good enough for him at that moment. Everything ached as Jack had already put him through the wringer, and it was only day one of his new imprisonment. Every part of his head and face hurt tremendously whenever he moved it, or even if he didn't, and he was left with a constant throbbing pain that wouldn't go away.

  But as he lay there and stared up at the ceiling, he had the faintest hope that things would turn out okay. Sandra's boyfriend had relayed the message to him, and he was made aware of what he needed to know, and nothing more.

  He thought about Sarah and prayed that things would turn out for the best. He surprised himself tremendously by finding that he really cared for her. He'd gotten attached to the point where he didn't know if he'd be able to go on anymore if he lost her. It was common for many people to question why they still went on in a world like this, but he thought that would definitely be the breaking point for him now. He thought of her pretty face and running his fingers through her long blond hair. He remembered what she looked like when he could still see, and he let those vivid images play through his mind, something that Jack could never take away from him.

  Sarah leaned forward on her bench seat, resting her head in her hand. She ran through her part of the plan in her mind, imagining it over and over again. The one thing she knew was that even the best plan never survived first contact with the enemy, but it was a very simple plan; either it would work, or it would totally crash and burn, ruining everything all of them had ever worked for and ending their lives, or worse. It was a heavy thought, but Sarah realized that the fate of the entire world literally depended on her and the actions she would take in very short order. It was a mind-boggling concept that she couldn't wrap her head around, and she found that the more she thought about it, the more likely she was to sabotage herself.

  So she thought about something else. She thought about Wayne, locked up in some other place who knew where. She thought about how badly he'd been abused by Glass in the military base she rescued him from, and she hoped he hadn't had too bad of a night. She really found herself falling for him, even though she knew it was hard to admit. The last man that she fell for was Noah, and he had stabbed her in the heart in the coldest way possible. After that, she didn't think she would ever love again. But Wayne made her think of her old husband—her last true love. That seemed like such a long time ago; that the memory of him almost seemed like a façade, like it never happened. Even though she knew it had been real. In fact, anything that happened before the apocalypse seemed strangely unreal.

  Except for David. Her son had been conceived nine months before Glass destroyed her and everyone else's world. From his conception to that fateful night of his birth to everything that happened in between since then, it felt like the realest thing she had ever experienced, because she was his mother, and when he was created there was an unbreakable bond stronger than anything she'd ever encountered. From the very moment he had stubbornly persevered and convinced her to leave their townhouses behind and make the trek to Noah's Ark, their very strange and inexorable fate was sealed, leading the two of them on an unimaginable path. But now the two of them had come together again like it was destiny.

  And Sarah still had a chance to save him. She still had a chance to make things right. He had been her silent rock, even when he wasn't there anymore. And he was her rock now. To her, the cure for the zombie virus mattered less to her about saving the entire world than it did to saving her son.

  Just before it was time for things to get going, Sandra came back up to the third floor with her duster in hand. She went past the security checkpoint without any trouble to do a little tidying up in Glass's office. He was still in his living quarters eating breakfast, so she would just do some light dusting and rearranging while he was gone.

  Sandra paused in the doorway of his office, pretending to inspect her duster while she retrieved the fake sugar cube that Ron had concocted. She held it in her palm
as she casually went around the office and gave a quick dusting to all the major surfaces. She went over his desk and chair, running the duster along the shelves behind it, then she cleaned the ledge stretching underneath the windows looking out to his balcony, and she finished finally with the wide table at the far end of the room. She took a little bit more care in cleaning this one, carefully lifting the leaves of the plant sitting in the middle of it and dusting around it. When she set the leaves down again, she dropped the pill with it, then she turned and rearranged a few items on his desk before leaving.

  And with that, her part was complete.

  The door to Sarah's cell opened and a guard came in and told her to get up to her feet. He turned her around and put the handcuffs on her, then he pulled her out of her cell and pushed her down the hallway.

  "Where are we going?" she asked.

  "No questions," Jeb told her coldly as he led her around the corner.

  They headed down another hallway toward the door where Sarah had seen the elaborate marble before. The soldier knocked on the door, and a guard standing on the other side opened it for him. He grabbed Sarah's wrist and led her out into the hallway on the second floor of the mansion. He pushed and pulled her around, directing her where to go until they reached the elevator.

  They took it up to the third floor and Sarah glanced around, marveling at the opulent mansion she found herself in. It was a far cry from the military base that she once thought was Glass's main headquarters, and she never expected to find him in a place like this.

  Jeb pushed Sarah by the shoulder to hurry her up and she stumbled forward, a look of utter disdain on her face as they approached the security checkpoint. There were more guards stationed there this time, and they took their time searching Sarah, feeling up and inspecting every part of her. Then they did the same to Jeb, being far more thorough than they usually were. When the security detail stationed outside of his office was sure that they were safe, they let them go on, and Jeb directed her into Glass's office.