“Something happened today. I almost got kicked out of the Station,” she admitted, and she heard all of them turn on their perches to look at her as she lay there avoiding their gazes.
“What happened?” Misty asked, the worry in her voice making Jenny cringe.
“Any of you know Amber Galveston?”
She heard both men groan, which caused her to turn onto her side and look at them. They were situated across from her; Joshua was now sitting up and Mark was propped up on one elbow, the stilts inside his backpack peeking out just a little.
Jenny smiled. “I’m going to take that as an affirmative yes.”
Joshua cleared his throat. “Sure is. She’s hot and all, but geez. That girl is trouble.”
“Those privileged ones always are, bro.” Mark turned his eye to Joshua and raised his eyebrows. “Always.”
Misty rolled her eyes and moved to sit next to Jenny, placing a comforting hand on her calf. “What happened with her?”
“Well, first she asked me if I really believed in the Head Hunter, which I do, but I didn’t answer her. Then she called me crazy and poked me in the temple, telling me I needed to get my head examined. I may have lashed out and grabbed her and taught her a little lesson.”
Misty, Joshua, and Mark burst out into fits of laughter, knowing that the girl had gotten what she well deserved. It was funny now that she thought about it, but she was nowhere near finished.
“She reported me. I had to meet with the Officer of Conduct today.”
“What happened? They’re not banishin’ you to the Dead Zone, are they?” Misty asked, wide-eyed with fear at the possibility of losing her new friend. She wasn’t ready for that.
Jenny shook her head and sighed, sitting up and crossing her legs.
“No, I got lucky. Officer Jackson is making me go to therapy to handle my ‘issues.’” She used fingers quotes around the last word with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Joshua chuckled as the others laughed. “What kinda ‘issues’ could ya have that we all don’t?”
Jenny shrugged and giggled. “I have no idea, but he wants me to go. If I don’t, he’ll be forced to throw me out, so I’ll do what I have to do to stay. I know I could survive out there again if I had to, but I don’t want to have to if I can help it.”
“So, you’re going to go in there and talk about what?” Mark probed.
“I guess about what happened during the meteorite strike and living in the Dead Zone for those years it took for the government to rebuild. He said it can change people and that my reaction to what she did is common for people who’ve been through what I have. Well,” she motioned to all of them, “what we have.”
“It’s not a bad idea. You guys want to give it a shot?” Joshua mused as he shifted on the bale of hay he was lying on. After everyone nodded and silence took over, he decided he would start. “When this started I was at the fair with my mom and dad. I’d scored the winning touchdown the night before, and they wanted to celebrate. There was a freak show there that my mom and I always liked to see every time the carnival came through, so we all went.” He looked down in an attempt to keep his friends from noticing the tears in his eyes. “My parents were in the tent watchin’ the show while I was outside. A meteorite came down and crashed into that tent, killing everyone inside.”
“I’m so sorry,” Misty consoled him, her eyes brimming with tears.
“It’s okay. We all lost people, right?” When he looked up again, Jenny was watching him carefully as if he might break from the revelation. “It’s actually how I met Mark. He saved my life. The worst part of that was having to watch the military come in and haul off the bodies of those that died. They forced us to wear gas masks to stop us from breathing in that red mist, but I got to watch them take my parents’ bodies out of the tent and put them in quarantine until they could be gotten rid of. They did nothin’ for the survivors and just kinda left us out there to fend for ourselves.”
“Oh my God,” Jenny whispered in shock, looking down as she wrung her hands.
“What about you, Mark? We know ya saved Joshua, but what else did ya do?” Misty asked.
She was attempting to lighten the mood with her tone, but all it did was cause Joshua to roll his eyes in irritation. There was nothing cheerful about what they were talking about and, even though he knew he heart was in the right place, he didn’t want any part of that.
Mark cleared his throat and said, “I lost my family a long time ago, so I don’t have a story like you guys, but I did lose the family I had known for so long within the carnival. They were almost like family. I was orphaned years before this happened and I joined the carnival not too long after, becoming one of the main attractions there.”
“What did you do?” Jenny asked, her interest genuinely peaked. She had never met anyone who worked for the carnival or circus before, so she was intrigued by the fact that he had.
“I was the guy on the stilts,” Mark admitted with pride, a broad smile spreading across his lips. He looked down at the pack he always carried with him that was set down in front of the hay.
“Stilts?” Misty’s eyes rose in curiosity. “Really?”
“Yeah? Something wrong with stilts?” he asked as he looked around the room at Joshua and Jenny, waiting for someone to come to his rescue against Misty’s skepticism.
“I would’ve never thought. I can imagine you on stilts, though!” Jenny laughed, joining in on the fun poking at Mark’s job within the carnival.
“Well, I’ve been on them basically all my life. I saw them at the circus with my dad when I was little, and once I got on them, no one could get me off them. That was how they knew I’d be a great fit. They make me feel like an unstoppable giant.”
Amusement greeted the last statement, and he couldn’t help but chuckle with them.
“Ya know, he still carries those things with him,” Joshua stated with glee, pointing down at the bag Mark always carried with him and never let out of his sight.
“I saw them. I’m amazed they fit in there,” Jenny giggled.
“How do ya get ‘em in the book bag?” Misty asked, now genuinely interested to learn something new about him. Not just because it was hilarious, but because it was intriguing.
“They come apart in pieces,” he answered.
Jenny nodded. “Interesting.”
“What about you, Jenny? I mean, you’re why we’re walking down memory lane. What happened to make you a delinquent?”
Jenny sighed and waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, Misty looking at her with a sad look on her face that said it all.
“There isn’t much to tell. My parents died during the meteorite strike, and I was raised jumping from Station to Station,” she answered.
“Ya know, most people only go to two Stations in a lifetime,” Joshua joked to break up the awkward silence that had followed.
Mark snorted as Misty looked at him in shock, eyes wide and mouth open. She knew how Jenny felt about the loss of her parents, so the joke made her cringe on the inside. Jenny just sat there and acted as if the joke didn’t exist.
“Before all of this, my father was a big deal. Everyone expected me to know what he knew. When they found out I didn’t, I was just thrown in with the rest of the crowd, working and surviving being all I could do because no one was willing to give me a second glance.”
“Such is life with G.O.D.,” Joshua whispered. Unfortunately, it was the truth, and they all knew it.
An alarm sounded in the distance, coming from the Station itself, high-pitched and wailing like a terrified and lost traveler. They all looked at one another, eyes wide because they knew exactly what that sound meant.
“The emergency alarm,” Misty stated.
They gathered their belongings, which weren’t much, and made their way to the Station where everyone would meet in the main courtyard so a G.O.D. representative could present the most immediate danger to their way of life. To their survival.
***
As the group entered the Station, it was dark, the crowd gathered just in the main courtyard illuminated by the bright white emergency lights. The courtyard wasn’t much of a courtyard, but more of a large empty space covered in dirty and dust. It was spacious enough to hold everyone but not so large that they couldn’t keep tabs on everyone who lived in the Station. And the group was massive, made up of every age, sex, and race. There wasn’t a single demographic left unrepresented.
There was a man at the head of the crowd dressed in all white, his dark hair slicked back, and glossy in the light as his dark brown eyes looked almost lifelessly over the crowd. He was muscular, the bulletproof vest covering his chest emblazoned with the letters ‘G.O.D.’ in black. The four Teachers from when they had arrived at Station Four stood behind him, perfectly manicured with perfect posture. Jenny, Mark, Misty, and Joshua approached them and stood toward the back, barely able to see over the heads of those in front of them, but they weren’t interested so much in seeing the G.O.D. representative. They were only interested in the message he was there to give. Jenny looked around, seeing Officer Xavier Jackson standing even further behind in a pressed suit despite the heat with hands clasped in front of him, eyes intent on the G.O.D. representative. She turned back when his eyes flicked to her, not wanting to meet his eyes for a reason she was unsure of.
The officer up front cleared his throat, drawing all attention to his large muscular frame. He opened his mouth to speak, and they all listened. Jenny focused on his words, knowing they could mean the difference between life and death in their new world After Apocalypse.
“All other Stations have gone dark,” he stated, his voice deep and slightly cracking as he shouted into the silence. It was as if he had been yelling constantly, which it was likely he had been.
Cries, shouts, and wide-eyed stares began to circulate, movement through the mass of people coming in waves as they turned and looked to one another for answers even though they had none. Even Misty looked to Jenny for answers, Jenny only shrugging in response.
The representative put his hands out in a calming gesture and yelled, “Please, everyone remain calm and let me explain, or I will have to hold each one of you for refusal to obey orders from a G.O.D. official.”
A hush fell over them instantly as Jenny’s mind raced, waiting to hear what the man had to say before making any judgments. Or deciding on a course of action for herself. Sometimes it was better to get out of Dodge than to stick around, but now she had friends. Companions. And she couldn’t leave them behind to face an uncertain future, could she?
“Thank you,” he said as he stared out at them and clenched his hands in front of himself again. “We do have it on good authority that the Stations have been attacked and that the attacks are connected to lawbreakers coming from the Dead Zone, as well as a new breed of Cranker. We are recruiting students from the ages of twenty and above to assign the necessary equipment to receive safety uniforms to be added to the security regime.”
Whispers started, and Jenny couldn’t help but hear one person ask a friend how they could do this at all. That what happened at the other Stations had nothing to do with them. Jenny couldn’t disagree more. When one Station fell, the rest would surely follow suit. Normally, as far as history was concerned, this was a direct attack on humanity in a fight for control over the Earth’s resources. She wasn’t sure which this was, but she had a feeling it was massive.
“We have absolutely no communications, but we have managed to remain in control of our only satellite as well as any of the tunnel entrances that link some of our cities outside of the Stations. They aren’t many, so we felt this was a necessary precaution. Our scouts have reported no signs of increased activity coming from the Dead Zone. That is all we have at this time.”
The crowd went wild with questions, each person looking toward the G.O.D representative for answers, but he was either unwilling or unable to give them. Jenny couldn’t help but think it was because he truly had no more to give. That they truly had no more information, but considering who he worked for, there had to be. Jenny watched in silence as the representative was escorted from his platform, losing him among the crowd.
Misty straightened next to her and smoothed down her shirt, taking a deep breath and smiling. “Duty calls.”
Chapter 11
Near the Kentucky Dam
July 2027
Station 4 – Officer Xavier Jackson’s Office
Officer Jackson knew that the explanation of the reason they no longer had communication with the other Stations wouldn’t suffice. He had thought about it the entire walk to his office, followed by the G.O.D. representative Hayes and his two massive bodyguards. He also knew that calling everyone who lived within the Station from their assigned duties wasn’t going to help anything, and it would cause their supplies to dwindle. Granted, this was a high-risk situation and, according to G.O.D. it was the right call, but Xavier knew the extra security would only make the situation worse. And he couldn’t stop thinking about Jennifer Meldano. The poor girl was already suffering. She had suffered enough at the hands of G.O.D., being moved from Station to Station because she didn’t fit into their tight niche of what was acceptable. Now she was being forced into a military life because G.O.D. couldn’t keep what remained of the human population in the United States safe.
He opened his office door and let Hayes and his guards inside, closing it behind them. They looked around the small room with a skeptical eye, as if the place was beneath them as those who worked for the Government of Defense in high stations. Xavier only shook his head.
“Please, Hayes, have a seat,” Xavier said to the man as he motioned toward the chair Jennifer Meldano had occupied earlier that day. He reached down and unlocked a bottom drawer of his desk, removing the pistol he kept there for a situation such as this. He then placed it in the top drawer and smoothed his jacket down as he sat and looked at the man across from him.
Hayes sat down, back straight and hands folded in his lap. The perfect picture of G.O.D.
“We have to act now or risk the population of Station Four, Jackson. You know moving all residents to the security detail at this point is our only option. It’s that, or—”
Xavier held his hand up to stop him and interrupted, “No. As far as Jennifer Meldano is aware, her father died in the meteorite shower. Plus, he wants nothing to do with G.O.D. or anything it stands for. He is perfectly content in the underground bunkers in the Smokies running his experiments. We should leave him be.”
Hayes cleared his throat and looked Xavier defiantly in the eyes. “I heard there was an incident with the Meldano girl.”
There was, yes,” Xavier said with a nod, “which is one reason we do not need to bring Caesar Meldano in. Her learning her father is still alive after all these years could intensify her PTSD. She will be treated, and hopefully she can become a fully functioning member of society again as a botanist in the greenhouses. If she’s anything like her father, she will make great strides.”
As someone who had gone through similar events during the meteorite strike, losing everyone and everything in his life, he couldn’t imagine what it would be like for Jenny to learn her father was still alive and kicking seven years later. Especially learning that fact because G.O.D. couldn’t handle their own problems without bringing in their former golden boy when they used to be called Area 51. Even that was privileged information and Xavier was waiting for that to leak.
“Oh, we’re certain she will. And we do hope it doesn’t come to bringing Meldano in, but we will do what we have to.” Hayes stood and placed a hand on Xavier’s desk, leaning down enough to look him in the eye. “Even if it means tearing that poor girl apart to save all that’s left.”
Xavier didn’t back down by looking away. He had fought long and hard to get where he was within G.O.D. ranks to help those who were so horribly affected by that fateful day and what followed. He wasn’t about to back down because of some man with a cushy job
, especially when it came down to one of his charges in the Station whom he felt deserved a fresh start so badly. Hayes got to sit behind a desk all day in the main G.O.D. facility, point fingers, and give orders, only having to come out here when something extremely important warranted an announcement.
Xavier chuckled at Hayes’s statement. “Careful, Hayes. You never know. You may just compromise the person who can solve your little Shadow problem.”
Hayes’s expression changed from that of complacency to pure rage, his icy eyes shifting so quickly that Xavier knew, if he said anything else, he’d be in a world of hurt. Xavier’s eyes shifted to the bodyguards. Both of their hands were on the butt of their firearms strapped to their hips, but otherwise, they hadn’t moved.
The Shadows had been a scar on the face of G.O.D. since the change within them took place. They still hadn’t figured out why the Shadows started to attack those who had created them and they were made to protect, but they had shifted to the same Cranker mentality quickly instead of killing them as they were designed. It was the reason they were left with even a minute awareness and memories but, as some things do, it backfired. And badly.
“Xavier, such a quick wit. I’d hate to see what would happen to the girl if you weren’t around.”
“Is that a threat?” Xavier stared back at Hayes, watching his eyes shift from one emotion to another as they bore into him.
Hayes didn’t say anything else. He stood, straightened, smoothed down his jacket, and walked out of his office, taking his two walking walls of muscle with him. The last one out shut the door and they were gone, and all Xavier could do was sit there and take a deep, steadying breath as his heart raced in his chest. He had probably just risked his job, and he was prepared to lose it if it meant protecting those who G.O.D. would gladly tear apart just to achieve their means.
Zombified (Book 1): The Head Hunter Page 14
