Z-Virus

by M. D Khamil

  Z-VIRUS

  Z-VIRUS

  M.D KHAMIL

  AUTHOR'S BIOGRAPHY

  Mohammad Khamil Khalid also known as M.D Khamil was born on the 3rd of May 1990, in Brunei Darussalam a small country in Borneo island situated in between two of east Malaysia's states Sabah and Sarawak. He is the youngest child among three children of Khalid and Norhemiemah's marriage and never had any experience in writing before.

  First schooled in one of the most busiest district in Brunei, where the capital city is located at Brunei Muara district in 1996. Khamil finished high school in 2008, where he repeated a year from failing his 'O' Level exam. A year later after that, Khamil went to continue his studies in computing in the year 2012. He graduated in 2014 and scored 4 distinctions out of 5 subjects.

  Now Khamil is planning to make writing as his fulltime career, because he said "There is nothing in this world is impossible, not until you try it and see the result. Never lose hope, believe in yourself." Z-Virus was his first novel.

  For myself who worked hard to create this story but couldn't make it to publish into paperbacks . . . Special "Thanks" to my dad Marcus whom I told to read this story but couldn't make it to finish it. Million appreciation to Frank who always forget my Birthday and gave me bunch of books. But I still fond of you two . . . Always. For my mom, I will make you happy. I love you.

  M.D Khamil

  Copyright Protected

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by M.D Khamil

  Published By Smashwords Inc

  All Rights Reserved

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 - Nightmare

  Chapter 2 - A Bright New Day

  Chapter 3 - A Mission To Accomplish

  Chapter 4 - New Companion

  Chapter 5 - Letter

  Chapter 6 - The Grave

  Chapter 7 - The Girl Who Killed

  Chapter 8 - Dead Woman's Pendant Secret

  Chapter 9 - Runaway

  Chapter 10 - Home

  Chapter 11 - Sunrise

  Chapter 12 - In The Shadow

  Chapter 13 - A New Hope

  Chapter 14 - To Stand For What Is Right

  Chapter 15 - The Dead Bridge

  Chapter 16 - An Old Friend

  Chapter 17 - Unforeseen Consequences

  Chapter 18 - Unrevealed Truth

  Chapter 19 - Planetary Devastation

  Chapter 20 - The Hidden Weapon

  Chapter 21 - The Last of Us

  Chapter 22 - New Life

  Chapter 1

  Nightmare

  "Run! They’re coming for us!" one of the pedestrian shouted to the public across the parking lot as he saw a group of fast running walkers rushing towards him. I heard women screaming, children crying and more shouting from the men as they tried to protect their wives and children from getting harmed. I wished I could help them, but I just couldn’t, they were too many. So I ran like a coward to my truck, for my life, for doing nothing. I started my truck and drove away. I saw dead bodies everywhere but within few hours the bodies would disappear. No they were not dumped away. They moved. They came back to life. I couldn't imagine seeing a friend, who was your best friend, dying and eventually die, then they came back to life losing controlled of your own self-conscious, acted aggressively and killed you the moment he saw you. That wasn't fun at all. Why? Killing your best friend wasn't something you wanted. A best friend was like another half of your self. Like brothers. You went through easy and hard times together. You probably even grew up since childhood together. There were bittersweet memories that you couldn't forget and to throw it like that just because he was one of them. I blamed the virus. It created an immortal life rooted an evil. We had no choice but to eliminate all of them at all cost. Best friend or not best friend. But the memories stayed forever.

  It all started when a scientist name Dr. Edward O’Neil tested the virus on a sick dog. It was broadcasted live on television on a famous science channel called From Newton’s Lab, when it was done. Theoretically the virus was made to fight against every type of disease in the body, including HIV. However, the test had failed. The dog died, or they thought so at that moment but it came back to life after for at least few minutes. They were happy the dog came back to life, they thought it worked but one of the scientist said, "The eyes turned dark red . . . Why is the dog growling?" It was there the outbreak had begun, the dog started biting everyone. There were all seven scientists inside the lab. One of them almost lost an arm. None of them survived from that massacre, the dog had escaped from the lab and brought the virus to the entire Newton’s building. They all became the living dead. That’s all I could remember, because I watched the channel back then.

  The virus went so lightning viral that I heard from the local news on the radio it has already spread in most part of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. I wondered how could it get that far. I remembered watching the news broadcasted live two days ago that Germany airplane, Germanwings that crashed at Royal Brunei International Airport. The virus inside the plane infected the whole crew and passengers. One of the pilot survived the virus but not for long. He managed to land the plane but unfortunately it went out of control and it hit the main entrance at the main airport building. Half of the plane’s mid section entered the building. There was a huge cracked at the mid section, and all the walkers escaped through the cracked. The whole people at the airport were zombified, including the reporters themselves.

  I have been running and moving around to escape from this madness. This cycle kept on repeating each day and even weeks. I have nowhere to go. I am tired of running. How long I have to stay like this? I need to do something. Something that would stop this madness, but no matter how many times I tried to convince myself to be strong, in the end I would always fail. The fear inside me getting stronger as days passing by. I am too afraid, too stupid to think, to think that I could act willingly according to what my heart wanted me to do. This was not what my mother wanted. I remembered she told me about being a man. A man must be strong enough and brave, to protect the one he loved. She said how could a man be a man if he could not even stand on his own feet, let alone to defend himself. If you wanted to be a real man, you need to go for it, never looked back, keep on going until you reached to that point, embraced it, never let go. Then you can be a protector to your family. Well to be honest, those words from my mother were actually stung me a bit but at the same time it made me thought really far and wanted to embrace it too.

  I am not married. Well lucky for me that I did not have to worry about getting my wife and my children killed. I have lost contact with my family, cousins and friends. I could only pray for them, that was, if only they were still alive. Maybe I and the people I saw earlier at the supermarket were the only few surviving people. I must admit there was no end to this. We tried to fight but instead we lost our precious life, the life that came from God, not the life created by the virus. Who would come to our rescue? This pandemic has probably become the worst disaster ever to have struck humanity since The Black Death that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351. Worldwide the Black Death killed 40 million people. The disease probably started in China. It was transmitted to Europeans when a Kipchak (Mongol) raiding party catapulted infected corpses into Genoese trading centre in the Crimea. I'm Travis Williams and now, I have only one mission to end all of this once and for all. To find the cure. The question was, "How?"

  Chapter 2

  A Bright New Day

  I arrived home about twenty-five minutes later. I lived in an abandoned apartment, well; I owned the whole apartment since no
one lived there anymore. It was a famous place, before it was left in ruined as the apartment offer a view of oceanic green cornfield in front of it. I get rid of the dead bodies before it turned into “one of them”, burnt them away. I put traps around my flat, dug few holes about twenty feet deep, just in case those walkers infiltrated the area, bells would rang if they stepped on some strings that I have set up to inform me of their presence. They would fall in the hole and this made my work easier in the process of wiping them out. Set them on fire. I have divided the flat into sections such as playroom, library, food storage, dobby, workshop, gym, cinema, music room, prayer room, weapon storage and museum; where I put antiques anywhere I could find on my journey. It took me like almost two years to renovate the whole apartment by my self. Yeah, it sounded amazing, but pretty much a mammoth pain to get it done. I rarely come and enter some of the rooms except for cinema, music and library. Almost every night I played the same music, Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra. At least that’s what I thought, to leave earth and moved to the moon.

  I went to my bedroom, took off my clothes wearing only my speedo, and lie on my back in my bed. Feeling tired, then came this four-legged creature barking towards me, greeting and licking on my face. It was my dog. I called him Prince. He has a light brown fur and enjoyed any types of food I gave him. I found him at the pet store, trapped under a cabinet. I helped him out and decided to take him with me. He has been a loyal friend and we have been together for about three years now. I took a nap but turned out to be a very deep sleep. I woke up the next day, the time on my bedroom wall clock showed 7.14 AM in the morning. I saw Prince still sleeping on the floor. I feel hungry, but I have to go urinate first. Then afterwards I go to the food storage room. I have quite few choices, instant noodles, canned sardines, corn beef, cuttle fish, fries, red beans, cereals, milk, juices, just too many to mention. I got all of these from visiting random shops and supermarkets. Took all the food with me for stocks. Yes, for free. The world outside seemed to be dead as I watched out through the window. All cities and towns were left behind, leaving the undead wandering around days and nights. Sometimes I thought this could be it. The end of humanity. Doomsday.

  It came out to my mind about revenge. Revenge on all of this crap, on this plague and madness. I really have no idea how I want to start but whatever it was, it has to end. I will have to take the risk, no matter what. But the more I thought of it, this has nothing to do with revenge. This was a problem that needs to be solved by a sane human with good mentality like me. I used to be working as a trucker under a company named Terrance Howard Mill. My job was to transfer newly made planks to nearby carpenter and hardware stores. The longest journey was about 40 miles away and I have to do this five times in a week since the demand of planks and wooden material were very high back then, but now, I am a free man and what I need now was courage.

  I have been thinking of going out there alone and become a human savior or better yet how I wanted to call my self as a hero. Doing the job to eradicate all the walkers I have found on my way and proud to called my self and shouted loudly on top of my truck saying, "I’m Travis, the Undead Slayer!" Sounds powerful to me or probably stupid, as that would attract more walkers to come and get me. I have studied them more closely since the past two years. You know what I mean. Those walkers. Their faces were pale. Bluish, greenish and sometimes darkish worm like veins obviously visible on their skin. Skin was cold as ice and their blood were pitch black. This surprised me in my studies about them. I experimented on a dead body, well not really touching it but watching from a far view from my apartment that some hungry walkers caught a new victim or a fresh human I called it. I saw his guts were torn apart while screaming in agony for helped. He died. Red blood everywhere. They left the body in about half an hour. I was still watching curiously, waiting and counting for how many minutes he required to be one of them. Bam! One hundred and twenty minutes. Exactly two hours from the time he got bitten, he got up again. Only then I noticed the hole in his gut were covered with dark liquid. Oozing down to his jeans. The virus affected the blood and turned the color dark. My discovery also found that they were blind. Their eyes were almost red, the pupil and iris were redish translucent. Even though they were blind, the sense of their hearing was enhanced. They were very sensitive to sound. They could hear footsteps as far as three meters and reacted immediately to the source of the sound. Lesson from this? Never get near them within range of three meters if you tried to sneak in front of them. Not only that, they could smell us. Fresh humans. This could be very tricky.

  Back about few months ago when I was driving to another state with Prince looking for canned rations to stock up, I saw a family of three carefully picking up and transferring canned rations to their van, avoiding any noises they could have made. About half miles west of them I saw a group of walkers standing and circling around a rotten dead body. They were about twelve in a group. The flag near the road just in front of the store started to flap. That was when the walkers start running towards them. They did not realize it, not until they were out of the store that the walkers were already rushing towards them. They had guns with them and I heard this “bang bang” sound but within seconds, the sound had stopped. They all died. They did the mistake of not shooting them directly on their heads. It’s the most vital part in killing them, or better to decapitate them. Oh, for the reason why the walkers aware of the family presence, it was because of their smell, carried of by the wind. Today, I am determined to go for it. I am going to Newton’s building and find the cure. I have no choice. My life and others who were still survived depends on it. Dear God The Al-Mighty, if you could hear me, if you’re up there, protect me on my Journey to survival. Amen.

  Chapter 3

  A Mission To Accomplish

  It only took about an hour and a half to reach Newton’s building from the place where I lived. Located just north from my apartment and sitting in once a peaceful and beautiful city named Greendale. It was a new made city in 2020. The city was well developed, so fast like it has been there long time ago. I parked my truck on the road just in front of the building. Just in case if something happened, I’ll just drive through. I brought along Prince with me. He became an essential friend and a kind of useful guidance for me. Yup, it’s pretty convenient. He could smell them too. If he were aware of the walker's presence, he would barked three times to let me know. High above me I saw an old big signboard on top of the building almost falling with wordings "We create a better future, guaranteed by our scientists!" and a little bit of information to the side with a date on saying "If you have any inquiries or ideas on how you want us to develop a new technology, share your opinions and send directly to our email newtonslab02@newt.com before 22 September 2027. Five lucky winners will win a brand new holographic touch tablet, The XX-Newt, by Newton’s Technology. We would love to hear from you. Newton, Your Life Companion!" Well what I'm sure was that, Newton was far from my life companion but my life nightmare it was and that it has been long expired, about three years ago before this pandemic started. It’s Tuesday, 14th April 2030, at 09:42 hours, that I will remember this day, the day I would be creating my own history in saving humans from extinction. That, if there were still humans out there for me to rescue.

  I dressed up fully like a SWAT member. Don’t ask where I get this uniform. I risked my life for it. I’m wearing a mask to prevent the living dead from sniffing my breath from afar that would ambush me whenever I am not aware of them. I am equipped with weapons. I carried my favorite silver Desert Eagle, an M16 tied to my back, A pair of combat knives I hid in both of my boots and a multi function all in one belt tied on my hips where I kept my grenades, flash bangs, smoke bombs and ammunitions. The surrounding seems quite but deadly. The silence was unusual. It was kind of deafening silence and something told me that bad things would happen. I took a deep breath before I made another step. The building was about thirteen or fifteen stories high and what evil lurking inside I wouldn’t want to kn
ow. What’s going to happen then so be it. They come I killed. It’s time. I'm ready.

  I’m inside. A creeping chilled ran down to my spine as I walked passed by several rotten dead bodies, full with maggots. They were the scientists who used to work in the building. How do I know that? It’s obvious the white long coat they’re wearing. I almost puke. The smell inside was unbearable. Although that I’m wearing a mask, the smell could still enter through the line under my covered face. No I don’t have any special suit with oxygen for breathing, thanks. I probably could get them here, hey it’s the Newton, they have everything. No, that was not my plan why I get here. To get a freaking suit. Besides the plague does not spread through air but from physical touch on their bodily liquid. Saliva, sweat and blood. Never let it touch my skin. The virus enters through your skin pores. Thinking about it, made me feel like no slight hope. Hell no. The environment inside the building was totally fucked up. Papers everywhere, chairs and tables were all upside down some even broken. The windows were cracked and shattered, and the white concrete wall were covered with splattered of blood. They almost looked like abstract arts. Only that the color already change to brown. It has been three years since the tragedy.

  Then I heard this little "chit chit" sound. I tried to look around looking for it's source. I really hope it wasn't what I think it was. I raised my right hand fisting my palm. It’s a signed I taught Prince for a halt. “Wait up buddy, stay behind me.” I saw him stopped then sit while waging his tail from side to side as if he knew, something was going to happen and ready for anything. I slowly moved to the front door of the elevator just next to the right in front of me. Beside the elevator was a narrow corridor, there’s a hanging sign on top of the ceiling telling the way to male and female restroom. Again, I slowly moved my body trying to take a peek what was it that making sound next to the elevator. To my shocked, it was what I think it was. No, it’s not the living dead. It’s the rats! They were as twice as dangerous than the walkers, they’re fast and they could jump! And all of them were infected by the virus as they feed on the dead! Again I moved very slowly avoiding any possible noises I could make, then suddenly a lamp fall down from the ceiling just about near from where I was standing. "Shit!" I shouted as immediately. The rats reacted to the sound, some were running and some were jumping. "Prince! Go! Go! Go!" He ran as I told him to but he went to the wrong direction. He went upstairs on the first floor. "Oh fucked! Prince! No!" I had no choice but ran as fast as I could upstairs and looked out for him. I had my gun on my hand ready but a change of plan instantly switched my thought. “Gun won’t work on a group of rats, but a Grenade will!” Just as I reached the first floor, I pulled out the pin and threw away the Grenade on the stairs and close the steel door of the first floor. “Boom!” A massive shook as if an earthquake had just occured. The windows and ceiling of the first floor was shaking vigorously while dust started to fall and fly around the area. Black liquid and red meat was visible through the transparent glass of the steel door.