DEAD Series [Books 1-12]

by Brown, TW

  “Although a lot of it looks relatively new and you obviously practice good maintenance and cleaning,” another man piped up.

  “Can we save the mutual ass kissing session for later?” the belligerent man huffed.

  “My colleague, Mister Cranston, is right. We do have pressing issues that must be dealt with. So, if we have answered your questions sufficiently…” The woman left that statement in the air and raised her eyebrows at Kevin to prompt his response.

  “Ask your questions, but I told that member of your scout team everything that seemed important.” Kevin realized that Ken had left. He was basically on his own.

  He answered each question about what they had seen back at Eggers Grove. He tried to give as much detail as possible. The one area that he felt bad about was that he had not bothered to recall the names of the people he had spoken to that had been captives of this gang calling themselves The Guardians.

  At one point, a man entered the room and whispered something to the woman—who had given her name as Analisa Cimber—and then left. Analisa smiled and relayed that Aleah was stable and sleeping comfortably, that she had been given a very mild sedative and that he would be able to sit at her bedside in order to be there when she awoke a few hours from now.

  The questions continued, many beyond his ability to answer. As it drew on, Kevin was able to slip in some more questions of his own. He discovered that there had been a large group of survivors who had actually been doing very well for themselves. Close to four thousand of them had made it to the US Bank building a mile or so away.

  It only took them a short time to realize that they needed to find a place they could fortify. A nearby golf course had been the first choice, but an out of control fire at a bordering automotive junk yard influenced their decision to try and secure the Olive-Harvey college campus a little further north.

  At some point, the first case of immunity was discovered in a young African-American woman. Three weeks later, her boyfriend turned after suddenly taking ill. The woman had tried to keep the young man away from the general population when he showed the first signs of the black tracers in his eyes which led to five deaths when he rose late one night.

  After that, the story got a little jumbled. It was eventually deduced that the zombie virus could be transmitted like any bodily fluid-borne pathogen. What happened next was, in Kevin’s opinion, a prime example of why humanity might not actually deserve to survive this epoch of its history.

  It started one morning with the discovery of the young woman hanging from a light post. Around her neck was a placard with the word “Carrier” scrawled in black letters. This caused a heated exchange and a lot of fights, but eventually, things settled down.

  A few weeks later, a group of survivors were at the gates begging to be let in. One of the members of the group proved to be immune to the bite as demonstrated by the well healed scar on his right arm. A group of men came down as the newcomers were being ushered inside and demanded that the “carrier” be excluded from those allowed to enter.

  The fact that they were all white was probably an unfortunate circumstance considering the African-American ethnicity of the newest person to show immunity. Words were said and the community divided racially within the hour. The assumption was now that ALL African-Americans were probably immune. This also led to the assumption (later confirmed during a confession that was extracted under torture) that this group had been responsible for hanging the first case.

  During the fighting, a section of the barricade was breached, and undead came streaming in; having been drawn to all of the commotion taking place within the compound. Once the breach was sealed, over fifty people died and almost a hundred had been bitten. The “African-American immunity theory” was debunked on four fronts as a Hispanic man, White woman and Ken Tucker who was of Korean heritage all proved immune to the bite. Meanwhile, several African-Americans eventually succumbed and turned.

  Things seemed to settle down, but feelings had already been damaged. A group of young African-American men struck two days later, kidnapping all of the men who had been at the gate that day to try and deny entrance to the one immune member of the recently arrived group. They obtained written confessions from three of the seven and went so far as to have one of the group, a young man who was no older than fifteen, stand on the roof of one of the campus buildings and shout his confession before he was shoved over the side; the fall was enough for his head to come clean from the body when the rope jerked suddenly after the twenty-plus foot fall.

  And once again, conflict erupted within the compound. When it was over, several hundred members of the community escaped amidst threats of returning one day to “wipe out the abominations” as one man put it.

  Over the next several weeks, patrols returned, bringing with them anybody they discovered who showed immunity to the bite. No questions were asked about how there often seemed to be only immunes being brought back to the compound from these patrols.

  Six weeks later, another attack came.

  This would be the first of many by The Guardians as the exiled former members of the group would brand themselves. All winter long, the two groups clashed as the nearby neighborhoods were looted by both factions. Kevin was curious as to why neither side considered abandoning the densely populated areas for someplace more remote.

  “Why? Ain’t they got zombies out in the sticks?” Jordan Cranston, the belligerent man who had been arguing with Analisa when Kevin had first arrived, asked with a rude snort of a laugh.

  The thing is, Kevin was struck with more force by that question than perhaps the man realized. His entire plan had been to escape to “the sticks” as the man so eloquently put it. He had made the assumption that a densely populated area would be a safer choice. Only, he had to wonder; was anyplace truly safe? They had already witnessed large urban areas with little to no zombie activity. Not only that, but they had seen herds out in the more remote regions. The undead were always on the move in the direction of whatever stimulus had drawn them on errands probably long forgotten. Not for the first time, Kevin wondered if his decision to trek all the way to South Dakota was a fool’s errand.

  By the time the stories were finished, Kevin was only certain of one thing. He would not be staying here. It did not matter which side of this feud you felt was more in the right, both sides had gotten it wrong as far as he was concerned. Both sides were using the same petty mindset that had been so prevalent in the society of the living: destroy anything that is different from yourself.

  He had heard one thing that disturbed him more than anything else. These people, these immunes had sent one of their own into the midst of The Guardians. From the descriptions, she was a beautiful woman. Her sole job was to test a theory of transmission. She seduced a few of the men in a two day period.

  Since her wound was a rather small scratch on her thigh, it was simple to conceal. She managed to infect five men in two days before slipping out. Sure enough, spies for the immunes reported that all five men turned within seventy-two hours. It only took The Guardians a few hours after the situation had been resolved for them to figure out what had happened.

  This news upset him in more ways than one. Of course his most selfish reason was simply that he was now certain he could no longer continue his relationship with Aleah. But the other part that bothered him was that this was basically the post-apocalyptic version of a bio-weapon.

  “So…will you be staying? From what we have heard in just the short conversations we have had with Heather, you would be an amazing asset to our society,” Analisa said, glancing up and down the table at the others who, with the exception of Jordan Cranston, were all nodding their agreement.

  Kevin wanted to come right out and say that they would absolutely not be staying. However, he was concerned that such a response might lead to something unpleasant. At the moment, he had not seen Aleah and was not exactly sure where Heather might be.

  “I need to see my friends…talk things over w
ith them. This is not a dictatorship.” That was the best answer he had at the moment.

  “Of course, you must be worried sick,” Analisa said with a nod. There was only a brief pause, though. “A quick question about her if you don’t mind.”

  Kevin bit his tongue. He’d had just about enough of the questions. He thought he had answered everything to their satisfaction.

  “She was pregnant and lost the child…but she is not immune. Can we safely assume that you were the father, and that this event took place prior to your having been bitten?”

  Kevin was not sure how they knew, but it sounded like they had just confirmed that Aleah did not share his immunity trait. Maybe he was reading more into her words, but he had to consider that she might have just let slip a tidbit of information.

  “That is correct,” Kevin said with a grim nod. “Now…if you don’t mind…I’ve answered your questions. I want to see Aleah.”

  “Very well.” Analisa rose and pushed a notebook across the table to one of her cohorts and then led Kevin down the stairs.

  As soon as they exited the room, she began talking. “Listen, I understand your concerns, and I realize that you have no reason to trust us in the slightest…but it would be beneficial to you and your friends if you were to stay here.”

  “You want an outsider’s opinion?” Kevin finally asked. The woman gave him a nod and gestured with her hands for him to go ahead.

  “I think you have some good ideas. I think you are in a terrible location…” She opened her mouth to protest and Kevin raised his hand to silence her. “Hear me out. The first thing that I noticed is that your water supply is very dicey. You seem to be relying on rain water as your primary supply. In the event of the perfect storm where you are surrounded by a herd like that one that just came through here, and a lack of rain…well, y’all are screwed seven ways till Sunday as my mom used to always say.

  “Add in the fact that you are involved in what is basically a war with another large group of survivors, that you have used the new world equivalent to a human bio-terrorist attack to get back at these people…” Kevin let his voice trail off. He had not wanted to tip his hand on the fact that he really had no intention of staying, but he was fairly certain he’d given that idea with crystal clarity.

  “I realize that, all at once, things may seem a bit…wrong, from an outsider’s perspective,” Analisa spoke slowly, seeming to choose her words carefully. “However, the fact is that there is a new reality unfolding before us. In those early days, did you even imagine the possibility that a bite from one of those monsters would not be a death sentence?”

  Kevin thought back to just such an event. The day his friend Cary had been bitten and he’d left him knocked out in a disabled car with a gun and a single bullet. He remembered vividly the day he’d met Heather and discovered the possibility. Of course, later, and against the odds, he had been reunited with Cary for a short while. He shook his head to clear it. The last thing he needed right now was to get overly emotional.

  “And so you are doing what exactly? Building some sort of Utopia where all the people who are immune can come to wait out the slow death of the rest of humanity? Thanks, but I’d rather not.” Kevin stopped suddenly and folded his arms across his chest.

  “There is no such thing as a safe place, I’ll give you that. And perhaps the undead have migrated to the point where you might think this is not a bad choice to call home…all the hundreds of thousands of homes waiting to be plundered. But spring is coming, and with it…warmer temperatures. I bet you anything that this place will be a haven for disease by June. All of the corpses that will rot under the sun, all the vermin coming in for the feast will likely cause the next black plague.

  “Your vision is shortsighted, and the day you run out of water, you will realize it. I doubt the next five years are going to be pleasant near any major city. The zombies might have moved on, but you can’t do anything about who knows how many diseases are waiting to bloom in the heat and humidity.” Kevin shook his head and gave a rueful smile. “I’ll take my chances out there, thanks.”

  “Then I wish you the best of luck.” Analisa was looking at Kevin, appraising him in a way that suddenly made him very uncomfortable. “But I have one final request, if you will at least give it consideration.”

  He was not liking the look on the woman’s face, but he did not see the harm in listening. He gave her a nod, but also motioned for her to continue leading him to wherever it was that they were keeping Aleah.

  “One of the things we are fortunate to have is a medical facility. Electricity has provided us with some very unique advantages. Also, we have a governmental research team that has made some amazing discoveries. We may be the only people who have a test to determine the likelihood of a person exhibiting immunity. That is why we know that your female companion is not.

  “This winter, we celebrated the first birth of our community. Both parents were immune, and tests revealed that the child possessed the same trait. Once it was verified, you can imagine our elation. Since then, a few more of our citizens have become parents. Each case has yielded a child that is immune.

  “Our only concern is the limited gene pool that we have to draw from. You must appreciate the problems that could arise if we do noth—”

  “Hold on a minute!” Kevin snapped.

  “We would make it very much worth your while,” Analisa spoke quickly, thinking that she had already guessed Kevin’s objection. “And we would keep the information confidential. Your companions never need know.”

  “Just how exactly did you verify that these children were immune?” Kevin said in a voice barely above a whisper.

  “What?” The question had caught Analisa completely off guard. So much so that she blurted the answer without even realizing at first the effect her words were having on Kevin. “It was really just a simple matter of injecting them with blood from one of the undead. We only lost one child in the process, and that was due to a compromised immune system The child never exhibited the telltale signs such as the blackness in the capillaries of the eyes, so it—”

  “You are all a bunch of fucking animals,” Kevin hissed.

  “Mister Dreon, I can assure you that we took every precaution—” she began to protest, but Kevin cut her off yet again.

  “You are treating people like lab rats! You are injecting newborn children to prove if they are immune or not. And what about the parents? Are you telling me that every single set of parents here were okay with that? Because, if you are, I am gonna call bullshit.” Kevin took a step back from the woman and gave her a harsh stare.

  “You people are sick in the head. If you think that I am going to contribute to this in any way, then you are pure crazy.” Kevin wished he had a weapon handy. Of course that wish was amplified just seconds later.

  “I told you he was weak,” the voice of Jordan Cranston called.

  Kevin looked up to discover that Cranston and several others were standing at the edge of the roof of the closest building; each was holding a rifle or handgun. All barrels were trained on him.

  “You never had any intention of letting us go,” Kevin said with a sigh.

  “That is not true.” Analisa shook her head. “However, with what you know, and your subsequent reaction, wouldn’t you agree that it would not be wise for us to simply let you go now?”

  “So you’re going to kill me?”

  “Haven’t you been paying attention?” Jordan Cranston said with an evil laugh. “You’re too damn valuable to simply kill outright.”

  Kevin thought he might have a clue as to what was being implied, yet it was just too bizarre for him to give it serious purchase in his mind. He looked over at Analisa who suddenly found something interesting on the ground.

  “Just so we are clear, are you saying—” Kevin began, but Jordan barked a laugh and spoke.

  “Son, you are breeding stock. Now personally, I don’t see how any red-blooded male can consider that a bad thing.
You’ll be seeing more pussy in the next few days than you have ever seen in your life…‘cept for maybe the magazines. Judging by the looks of ya, I think I am making a fair assumption. You what folks used to call a geek, am I right?”

  “And if I refuse?” Kevin challenged.

  This only made Jordan laugh that much harder. “Boy, we gonna strap you down on a table, then we gonna send in naked women to rub up on you…how you think you’re gonna refuse?”

  “To make it easy on you, how about if we let you begin with your companion. Heather, I believe was her name?” Analisa finally spoke.

  Kevin whirled around on the woman. “Not her! Never her…you understand me? Don’t you people dare touch her.”

  “Kevin, you are making far too much of this. It would all be so much easier if you just relax and give it time,” Analisa insisted.

  “And if this were the other way around…if you and a few of your fellow travelers had arrived and we were telling you that you were going to become nothing more than a breeder…you wouldn’t have a problem with it?”

  “But it doesn’t have to be that way.” Analisa leaned in close to Kevin, a look in her eyes that reminded Kevin of some sort of brainwashed cult member who thought everything was “beautiful and happy” because that was what they were told. “You could join us here…be part of the community. We need people with your brains.”

  Kevin had to wonder how much had been told…and to who. Certainly they could not simply assume that he was smart. Obviously the others had been questioned. To what extent is what he had to wonder. Had they been questioned…or interrogated?

  “Let’s say that I agree to give this place a try.” Kevin held up his hands. “Can I have some assurances that all of my friends will not be harmed in any way, that you will let us stay together until we are comfortable with the surroundings?”