“Let’s hope not. We attacked those guys as they were exiting the building. Killed a couple, injured plenty more. Maybe most will be dead before they can do too much damage,” Dayton said with a grin.
“They’ll have medics on board,” one of Dayton’s people said. He’d been with Dayton on the outside.
“True, but there isn’t a cure for the virus and unless they all took the vaccine, which I doubt, over half their numbers will be turning in the next few hours.”
“I don’t think any of them took the vaccine,” Jason said. “They seemed too frightened of what they thought we might have put in the batch we brought to take it. Why they think we would do anything to them for no reason, I don’t know. I also don’t know if they’ve had enough time to make and take their own version of the vaccine, so I’m pretty sure they’re all still able to catch the virus.”
“That’s what we were banking on,” Dayton said, smiling as he turned our vehicle westward and headed back to the island.
“How were they exposed? Did you see them get bit?” I asked confused by Dayton’s blasé attitude.
“No, I don’t think any were bitten. When we realized that the Germans had already started bombing the country, we began plotting how to get you guys out and ensure the bastards died. One such idea was to coat all of our swords, knives, and the like in zombie gore. We assumed that since they started bombing, they didn’t believe you had a vaccine and hadn’t taken it. We waited for them to leave, another inevitability with the bombs, and attacked. They weren’t fighters, but we weren’t actually aiming to kill just to nick them enough to expose them to the virus. If we’re lucky, that entire carrier will be dead before they can kill us all.”
“But they have the doctors,” Samantha said.
“We figured that out once they’d made it to the docks. By then it was too late to save them. They’ll survive, hopefully. If they do, they can take one of the boats back to shore. I don’t like leaving them, but we couldn’t stick around and hope they showed up before New Norfolk is demolished.
“All we can do now is hope we make it to Shore Haven alive and that Liberty Island is still there.”
“What if it isn’t?” I asked Jason.
“Then we hope the lab or school is still standing and will take us in. The lab was underground for the most part, so maybe it survived the attack. It also wasn’t located in a major city. Neither was the school. They wouldn’t have been targets unless the Germans started targeting known survival locations, which I don’t think is so. I think they’re scared the virus will spread and leave the continent, so their goal is to wipe out the centers of the largest hordes and possible escape routes for humans who haven’t had the vaccine. That’s why I feel confident that Shore Haven will still be there. Time and time again, we assured them that the island was zombie-free.”
I hoped he was right. I feared he was misguided in his hopes, but I wouldn’t voice my thoughts. He was alive. I was alive. That was all I cared about at that moment. Selfish of me, sure, but that didn’t change anything.
We were a good hour from New Norfolk when the city went up in a cloud of smoke. We’d stopped to rest in a small town that was zombie-free. We needed food, water, to find another vehicle, and to stock up on supplies for our journey home.
Off and on, someone had kept watch on the direction of the coast to see when the city was hit, but when the Germans had finally bombed it nearly all of us had been staring off in that direction.
Dayton had said that they’d been releasing a bomb every hour or so since about two hours after we entered the building. I was amazed that they had missiles with such a long range, but others speculated that they had ships lined up along our entire coastline with specific targets assigned to each one. That was a scary thought, and to an extent, I could understand why they were doing it, but at the same time, it pissed me off that they felt they had the right to try to wipe our country off the planet.
We stared in awe at the sight in the distance for a long time before it became too depressing to watch, not that the scenery changed when we looked away. Everywhere we turned, we saw dark clouds of smoke.
The town we’d stopped in had very little we needed, though it did have a second vehicle and a gas station that we were able to siphon a great deal of gas from that would allow us to make it to the island at the very least.
The next town over had more supplies, but not enough to last us. Before we’d been able to make it another two hours from New Norfolk, night was falling, and we’d found a stocked bomb shelter in a nice residential neighborhood to sleep in for the evening.
The shelters wouldn’t hold up in a quake, but they would protect its owners from floods, hurricanes, and the like, so they’d been a high priority for a good number of people over the years. They also allowed them a place to stockpile needed items in case of another apocalypse.
Judging by the few zombies we’d found in the shelters and the zero number of survivors, when the zombie outbreak hit, not many people had thought about their shelters, at least in that city. That worked in our favor. We’d been able to find enough water for everyone to take a proper bath that night, enough food to last us until we got to Shore Haven, and proper clothes for the trip. We didn’t find that many weapons, but we found enough to feel safe. Zombies and feral humans had been few on our trip so far, but we couldn’t be too cautious.
The next afternoon, we set out for Shore Haven. We wanted to stop only when necessary for the rest of the journey. We found a third vehicle, set up a driving rotation, made sure we had everything we would need, even piss buckets—yes, we were that serious about getting home as soon as possible—were easily accessible, and set off. With every town we had to detour, with every empty city we passed through, with every pillar of smoke we saw, I feared what we’d find.
No more new pillars of smoke had shown up after that first night, so we assumed they’d stopped firing on us, but they’d done more than enough damage to our already destroyed continent. If we survived this, it would be a miracle. Jason was a bit more optimistic than I was about it all. He was the only reason I tried to believe Shore Haven was still there. Kayla was there. She was like a daughter to him. Even though he had me, he still needed her, and she needed him. The island needed to be there for that reason alone.
Epilogue
~~~Jason~~~
Liberty Island was still there. Samantha, most of the others, and I stood on the mainland side of the bridge looking at the island in all of its glory. I’d stopped and gotten out to look at the bridge because I hadn’t believed it was truly there. The others had followed my lead. We’d assumed it was still standing when we got close enough to have seen smoke if there had been any, and we hadn’t seen a thing.
Larkin was gone. We’d seen the crater where it used to be. A few other cities we’d come across on our way back to Shore Haven were also gone. The smoke we saw far off in the distance toward the west indicated that the Germans had been able to fulfill most of their mission despite our best efforts, but the island was there, and that meant Shore Haven was still standing.
“I can’t believe it,” Samantha said, allowing me to wrap my arms around her.
“I can’t either,” I said in disbelief. “I’ve never been this glad to see the place.”
Ever since we’d left New Norfolk, I’d known in my heart that Shore Haven would be the first place the Germans would bomb. My entire life, other than Samantha, was on the island.
“Stop being all sentimental and let’s get to the compound. I’m hungry,” Dayton yelled from where he stood by his vehicle.
“Ass,” Samantha called back to the man. She agreed with him, though, and pulled me toward our truck.
“A hungry one, yes ma’am,” Dayton called back.
I didn’t resist. I was ready for everything to be over and for our new life to begin. We’d only seen twenty zombies on our way home. If we were lucky, by the New Year, there wouldn’t be one on the entire continent.
&nb
sp; We pulled up to the south side of the building trying to radio the group and honking our horns in celebration of being home and them being alive. The reception they gave us, though, wasn’t as joyous as we’d hoped.
Just a few days ago, there was a possibility none of us would have seen each other again. For all they knew, we were dead and vice versa. One would think they would be a bit happier to see us.
“Okay, what’s going on?” I asked once we’d disrobed and were on our way to the cafeteria. “We’re alive. All of us, so what the hell is the matter with everyone?”
“Hayden’s dead,” Jasper informed us once we’d entered the room and saw how pitiful everyone looked.
“How?” I asked.
“Zombie.”
“What? How?” I asked again completely shocked by the revelation.
“She was bitten,” Jasper said.
“But…” Samantha started.
“The vaccine?” I asked.
“Not a hundred percent apparently. We think just those who got sick after the injection can catch the virus. Before we lost communication with them, the school reported losing two of their people the same way. Two that had been sick after taking the vaccine.”
“Do the doctors know?” Samantha asked, sounding too calm. “Can they fix it? Can we get a different vaccine?”
“I have no idea. We haven’t been in communication with the lab since the bombs started,” Jasper said.
“So I can still turn?” Samantha asked. The wide-eyed look of shock on her face told me she was seconds from losing it.
“We don’t really know,” Jasper said. He started to reach out to her, but I got to her first.
“Jason…” she pleaded with me.
“You’ll be okay. I promise,” I said, leading her out of the room and to our apartment. Just inside the door, I pulled her to me and kissed her deeply.
Shore Haven was safe. Samantha would be safe there. I would make sure of it. I repeated that mantra to myself when I pulled away from her and wiped tears from her cheek.
I continued to repeat it to myself in the days, weeks, months, and years after that.
Acknowledgments
I’d love to thank many wonderful people for their help with this novel. First, as always, my editor. Kathryn never ceases to amaze me. Next, Amanda Yocum (I’m using her maiden name here because both of her ex-husbands suck. LOL!) and Jai Brown for being the first to beta read this novel. They read it before I sent it to editing. They were brave women. Vickie Stolte and Rose Holub beta read it next, helping me get it ready for the rest of my betas, who are are equally amazing.
I want to thank Danny Creasy for information on guns and Adam Gregory for the information on the military. There isn’t a lot of either in this novel, but I had to go to them for the parts that are.
For helping me come up with an amazing blurb, I thank Melanie Smith, Sarah Stuart, and Rhonda Hopkins from Indie Author Support & Discussion FB Group. Everyone in that group is awesome, but these ladies went out of their way to help with this novel’s back matter.
How much do you love this cover? You have the lovely Lynn Lamb to thank for it. We started this cover while my FIL was dying from dementia. She was very patient with me and allowed me to work at my own pace. I was indecisive because I was emotional, but in the end, I think she created the greatest cover imaginable for this novel.
About the Author
Jennifer Reynolds is a native of North Alabama. She has a Master of Fine Arts degree from National University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Alabama.
She is a multi-genre author who focuses mostly on post-apocalyptic novels with plagues and zombies as their source of destruction and paranormal romances, especially shifters, werewolves, and ghosts. She does occasionally dabble in other genres such as general fiction, horror, and suspense thrillers.
When she’s not writing, she’s a full-time caregiver of her mother-in-law, a stay at home wife, an avid reader, and the mother to two kitties, Lilith and Midnight.
If you’d like to know more about me, Author Jennifer Reynolds, then check out this informational brochure or one of my many social media sites.
https://view.publitas.com/jennifer-reynolds/jennifer-reynolds-book-brochure/
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