by David Achord
MOUNT WEATHER
Zombie Rules Book 5
By David Achord
This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
© 2017 David Achord. All rights reserved.
Previously in the Zombie Rules Series
At the beginning of the Zombie Rules series, Zachariah Gunderson is a skinny know-it-all, struggling through his sophomore year in high school. At the time, he is infected with a common teenage malady known as puppy love.
His sweetheart, Macie Kingsley, does not have the same feelings and dumps him. Unfortunately, his grandmother dies, which also happens to be the same day as his sixteenth birthday. If all of this was not bad enough, Macie’s new boyfriend and his buddies beat him up and vandalized his house.
Zach is consoled by his friend and boss, Rick Sanders. A grizzled old Vietnam vet with a drinking problem, Rick convinces Zach the apocalypse is occurring and the two of them should ride it out at the homestead of the farm they work at.
Rick dies on Christmas Eve of the first year. Zach is lonely and depressed, but presses on. He meets his future wife, Julie Frierson, and they eventually have two children. He also meets Fred McCoy, a man who becomes a father figure to Zach and is a pivotal character in the series.
Zach is shot in book one. It’s only a grazing wound to the side of the head, but there are strange side effects.
He also meets a man by the name of Charles Ward, who prefers to be called The Captain and has a crew of people who share their leader’s vision of grandeur.
In Z14, book two of the series, the relationship with The Captain starts as a friendship but quickly turns sour. At one point, he attacks Zach and takes a knife to him. Zach is saved by Andie Ward, The Captain’s own niece, whom he had been sexually abusing.
Book two is also when Fred, burdened with guilt, decides he must go to Los Angeles to find his only daughter. Along the way, he meets Major Sarah Fowkes, a pilot stationed at Tinker air base in Oklahoma.
Book three, Zfinity, hammers home the reality of living in a post-apocalyptic world. Zach and his group meet a Marine contingent who is travelling the countryside, conducting blood tests on survivors. Amazingly, they discover Zach has an immunity to the zombie virus.
It all sounds good, but the demented Marine colonel decides to abduct Zach and his children and conduct tests on them. Oh, and he orders the murder of several of Zach’s loved ones, including Fred, Julie, and others. Even the dogs.
Destiny, which is book four in the series, starts with Zach in a state of depression. His wife is dead, his kids are missing. His only saving grace is Kelly, who found Zach after he had escaped from captivity. He discovers an encrypted note, written by a female Marine who had befriended Zach during his captivity, indicating his children have been relocated to the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia.
He and Kelly plan to go to the CDC in Atlanta in hopes of rescuing them, but, much to his surprise, a few Marines show up in Nolensville with his kids in tow. They beg Zach’s forgiveness for their part in the abduction. Zach is tempted to kill them on the spot, but in the end, he finds forgiveness in his heart.
Colonel Coltrane isn’t finished though. He has become obsessed with finding Zach and eventually returns to the Nolensville community. Karma catches up with the colonel though. Janet, Zach’s mother-in-law, slits the colonel’s throat.
With the help of new friends, Zach organizes a rendezvous, a method of bringing together other survivors for the purpose of meeting each other and bartering. It proves to be a success.
During the rendezvous, everyone is surprised when radio contact is made with the president. He later sends a delegation to Nolensville whereupon they invite Zach and his friends up to Mount Weather. At first, Zach is dead set against it, but one night he has a dream…
The Characters
Zach – When the apocalypse began, Zach was a smart but naïve teenager. Now, he’s a nineteen-year-old man, wise beyond his years, but troubled with the lingering effects of PTSD.
Kelly – Four years older than Zach, she admits to have been smitten with him from the moment she first met him, even though he was married to another woman at the time. Taller than your average woman with long dark hair and even longer legs, Zach thinks she’s beautiful. They fell into each other’s arms after the massacre and have been together ever since.
Frederick Zachariah Gunderson – Named after Fred McCoy, Zach’s two-year-old son is described as a rambunctious kid who gets into everything.
Macie Marie Gunderson – Zach’s one-year-old daughter loves attention and loves her adopted mother. She has Zach’s blond hair and brilliant blue eyes. She was named after Zach’s first love.
The Nolensville Crew – Ten other people from the Nolensville community travel to Mount Weather with Zach (not counting the Mount Weather delegation). But, there might be one late arrival…
The Citizens of Mount Weather – There are a total of one hundred and thirty people at Mount Weather, give or take, consisting of the president, politicians, support staff, a few military, and other various sundry personnel.
Chapter 1 – Passin’ Through
Riley tried to remain still, but she couldn’t help herself. She’d not shaved in almost three years, and for some crazy reason, she decided to last night. Everything below the waist was fine, but her armpits itched like crazy. At least she wasn’t scratching her crotch every few minutes.
She wasn’t sure why she did it. Maybe it had to do with the group from Nashville that had passed through last week. There were a few single men with them, and she’d caught at least a couple of them eyeing her frequently. But, they didn’t stick around.
With the exception of her brother, the men in her group were all old. Much older than her. Lately though, she’d started having notions about Ben. He turned fifty the day before. He was a handsome man, trim, salt-and-pepper hair, and nice teeth. He was a successful businessman back before, with a beautiful wife and two kids in college, who were now dead. Whenever he saw Riley, he’d smile and give her a wink.
At his birthday party, Riley caught him alone and kissed him. He turned red, mumbled something unintelligible, and hurried back to the crowd.
Riley fumed at the memory. She’d never been with a man before and wanted Ben to be her first. She had it all planned out, but those plans went to hell the moment he ran off.
While she stood there, fuming and red with embarrassment, her older brother had walked by and made fun of her hairy legs sticking out of her cutoff shorts. She retorted with a snide comment of her own, but she also wondered if it was the reason Ben was frightened off. Maybe he wasn’t frightened, maybe he simply found her unattractive.
That night, she found a disposable razor and went to town. The next time Ben saw her wearing short shorts, and she was going to wear them until he did, he was going to regret not kissing her back.
Riley scratched herself again as she sat in her makeshift sniper pit. She hated guard duty. Sitting in a hole in the ground, sweating, getting bitten by mosquitos, not her idea of fun. Well, with the exception of getting to shoot zombies when they came wandering through.
She peered through the rifle scope down at her dad. He was sitting under one of those big umbrellas beside their van, fanning himself with a fly swatter. Riley gritted her teeth. Why couldn’t she be the one who sat in the shade waiting for prospective customers to come along? Besides, if any cute guys came through, how was she going to attract them like this?
She didn’t know why they kept up with this trading post nonsense. Nobody had come through since those people from Tennessee, and that was four days bac
k. The only bright moment happened a few hours ago when she spotted two zombies slowly walking up the interstate.
Both of them were adolescents, a boy and girl somewhere around Riley’s age. They looked like they’d recently turned. Neither of them bore the scarring and blackened skin of old zombies. No, these two still had festering wounds and nasty bite marks. The boy’s face and neck had been chewed up pretty good. No surprise there. Once those nasty things got ahold of you, they went crazy.
The girl was odd looking. She was wearing camouflage shorts, hiking boots, and nothing else. In addition to multiple bite marks on both arms, her breasts no longer existed. It looked like they’d been torn off. Her face was still mostly intact though. She would have been a pretty blonde at one time.
She found it strange. If they were freshly turned, they couldn’t have travelled far, yet Riley did not recognize either one of them.
It didn’t matter though. They were infected, and there was only one thing to do about it: Kill them. Riley waited until they had lined up in her sights and fired. The bullet entered the right eye of the girl, exited out of the back of her skull, and entered the cheek of her male companion, lodging itself in the C1 vertebrae. Both of them slumped to the roadway without making a sound. Grinning, she turned her scope back on her father. He signed to her to leave them both lying in the roadway.
She settled back, thinking about maybe taking a nap, but her thoughts were interrupted by the rhythmic sound of hoof beats. She turned slowly and peered through the camouflage down the opposite side of the interstate. A man on horseback was making his way down the road. He barely glanced at the two fresh zombie kills as he rode by.
Riley remained perfectly still. She was hidden well enough, she was sure of it. After being spotted by the cute blue-eyed boy, Zach was his name, she took a lot of ribbing from her brother about it. She worked hard on her new sniper pit after that. Nobody could spot her now.
She sat motionless as the man on horseback casually rode up. Much to her consternation, he stopped on the road no more than ten feet away from where she was hidden. The horse looked in her direction and snorted. The man on the horse looked down the interstate at her father, took his hat off momentarily, and wiped his brow.
“Excuse me, miss,” he said as he put his hat back on. “I’m wondering if you people could spare some clean water for my horse.”
“How did you spot me?” Riley demanded.
“I didn’t,” the stranger replied. “My horse did.”
Riley stared at him, wondering if he was joking with her. She glanced over at her father who was smiling good-naturedly.
The stranger was older than her father by a few years. Tall and lanky, he had a deeply weathered face, most of which was covered by a thick beard. His eyes were cold, strained, belying the fact he’d had a hard few years. He was pretty stiff when he got off his horse and a momentary expression of pain had flashed across his face, making her wonder what’d happened to him.
“Your horse didn’t know I was a girl,” Riley argued.
“Sure he did,” he said, and offered a small, forced smile.
“What brings you around these parts?” her father asked.
“Just passin’ through,” the man answered. It was a vague answer, as were all of his responses. When Big Joe introduced themselves, he nodded pleasantly and said he was pleased to meet them, but he didn’t bother offering his own name. Father and daughter exchanged glances, but they didn’t push it.
Joe looked over at the man’s horse, which was picketed under a nearby black locust tree. He had a saddle, a rifle in a scabbard, saddlebags, and a tarp rolled up and tied to the back of the saddle. Joe also noticed the six-shooter holstered to his waist. The leather holster looked well broken in. For some reason, Joe had no doubt the old man knew how to use that pistol.
“You look like you’re travelling light,” Joe commented.
“Yes, I am. I’m afraid I don’t have anything to trade.”
“No matter,” Joe said as he looked over at his daughter. “We were about to take a break for lunch when you came riding up, would you like to join us?”
“I’d be most appreciative,” the stranger replied quietly.
“He didn’t have much to say,” Riley said as she and her father watched him ride away.
“Nope,” Joe replied.
“He didn’t even tell us his name,” she said.
“I guess he thought it wasn’t necessary.”
“We could’ve killed him and taken his stuff.”
Joe looked down at his daughter. “We don’t do that anymore.”
Chapter 2 – Mount Weather
They were everywhere. I was alone in the guard shack and down to my last magazine. I’d killed dozens, but there were hundreds more.
“Someone bring me more ammo!” I yelled, but somehow I knew nobody was left alive. Shooter and his brother were lying outside of the guard shack, currently being chewed on by several zombies.
I fired my last round at one of the things who had managed to crawl up and into the guard shack. Pulling out my machete, I began swinging wildly as they came pouring in. One of them, an ugly gaunt-faced male of indeterminable age, grabbed me in a bear hug. I tried to push him away, but his face moved inexorably toward mine, his teeth gnashing. I could even smell his hot, rank breath. He then stuck his tongue out and licked me.
I jerked awake sometime during the second or third time Zoe licked my face. When she saw my eyes open, her tail started thumping against the floor, which caused Callahan to jump up on the bed and give my face a lick as well. I guess they needed to go outside and were telling me they’d be most appreciative if I got my butt out of bed.
I reached out and acknowledged them both with a head pat, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and tried to calm myself from the nightmare. Kelly stirred beside me.
“What time is it?” she murmured.
I glanced at the luminescent dials on my watch. “Almost five.”
Kelly voiced her displeasure with a groan of irritation. I gave her a kiss on the cheek, ignoring her morning breath.
“Go back to sleep. I’m going to walk the dogs.”
Upon our arrival at Mount Weather the evening before, we were greeted with open arms, more or less. Even President Richmond gave a welcoming speech. We were fed MREs, which I never liked but didn’t complain, and then were assigned to rooms that were located underground in the famous top-secret bunker. I found out the private rooms were reserved for the VIPs, and the rest of the personnel were relegated to either small, single rooms or the dormitory. So, so far we’d been treated wonderfully.
Sammy Hunter, our recently adopted ten-year-old kid (almost eleven, he was quick to point out), was sleeping on a cot in the den, but when I entered, he was instantly awake.
“What are you doing?” he asked sleepily.
“I’m going to take them for a walk,” I said, gesturing at the dogs. “Do you want to go with me?”
He readily agreed and began dressing.
The elevator hummed smoothly as we ascended to the surface.
“How do they have electricity?” Sammy asked.
“According to Seth, it comes from a dam that’s located about two hundred miles from here.” I saw Sammy looking at me in puzzlement.
“The dam supplies hydroelectric energy,” I explained.
“What’s that?” he asked. I gave him a look.
“It’s when water is used to create electricity. We’re going to have to get you enrolled in school.”
Sammy made a face. “Can’t you teach me?”
I smiled and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Sure I can, but I want you to be smart.”
“You’re smart. Everyone says so.”
“I want you smarter than me,” I said.
The elevator door opened. Zoe and Callahan ran ahead and waited anxiously at the main entry door.
“Where’s everyone at?” Sammy asked as we watched Zoe sniff around before finding a suitable spot. She�
�d grown a lot since she was given to us by a gentleman who called himself Hillbilly, but there was still a lot of puppy in her. I made a mental note to ask if there was a veterinarian here.
“I guess they’re all still asleep,” I replied.
It was a humid gray morning. It felt like rain was on the way. I looked around at what I could see of Mount Weather. I’d read about it once on the internet, and I got the impression it was a massive fortress-like facility. So, I was a little surprised when we got here. There were multiple buildings, all built without seeming regard to symmetry or efficiency. I was told they were all connected by tunnels, but I had not had a chance to get that far, yet.
There were a lot of things present that I’m sure were added after. Greenhouses, a couple of barns, someone had even built a small smoker. And lots of clotheslines. I’d seen the laundry room down below, but I guess some people felt like energy conservation was important.
The fencing looked like it had been reinforced several times. I could see the original fencing and then there was additional fencing, added posts, and concertina wire, lots of concertina wire. It was full of trash. I guess keeping it clean was not a high priority. There was a guard shack down at the main entrance. It was supposed to be manned twenty-four hours a day.
“Let’s go say hello to the guards.”
The main guard shack had been constructed sometime within the first or second year. It was at the northern edge of the property where State Route 601 and Old Blue Ridge Mountain Road intersected. They’d erected large concrete barricades with a heavily fortified steel gate. The guard shack was surrounded by Hesco barriers, like the military uses. For added protection, a couple of those bad ass Strykers were parked at angles on either side of the roadway with machine guns mounted.
They also had a decontamination station set up outside of the gate which consisted of a water tank and a gas-operated pressure washer. When we’d arrived yesterday evening, a gentleman dutifully washed down our vehicles while we disinfected our hands and shoes.
