The Brother's Creed_Book 3_Wolf Pack

by Joshua C. Chadd

In the End

  Post-outbreak day eight, late evening

  James sat in a small, unadorned room in the back of the US customs building. It was just like in all the movies. He was handcuffed and sitting in a chair with a table between him and an empty chair. There was a mirror on the wall and there would be someone behind that, watching him.

  He was waiting for someone to interrogate him. The good thing was that at least this room was safe. A zombie would be hard-pressed to get in there past all the guards. Plus, it did seem that the uniformed men were either part of the government or working with them, which made him oddly calm. There was no threat of zombies and he was in the custody of the US and, maybe, Canadian militaries.

  James and the others hadn’t taken any action against them and would hopefully be released after telling their story, especially when the government learned they didn’t want to stay. But he didn’t want them seizing all their gear or Scourge. How long had he been sitting in here anyway? It had to have been at least a half hour. What were they doing out there? Searching all their stuff?

  The door opened and man in a gray suit walked in

  “I would offer to shake your hand, but…” James said, holding up his handcuffed wrists.

  “No need, Mr. Andderson,” the man said, sitting down.

  “I see you already talked to my friends, Mr…” James said.

  “Yes, Chloe was very cooperative,” he said. “You can call me Mr. Smith.”

  Really? James thought, That’s the best he could do?

  “I’d love to get this sorted out and be on our way,” James said.

  “Good. State your name.”

  “You already know my name.”

  “Humor me.”

  “James Andderson.”

  “How many are in your group?”

  “You know that, too.”

  “Answer the questions.”

  “Four of us.”

  “What are their names?”

  James clenched the arms of his chair with white knuckles. “Connor, Tank—”

  Mr. Smith cut him off. “Full names.”

  James ground his teeth. “Connor Andderson, Allen Hook, and Chloe. I don’t know her last name.”

  “Where were you heading?”

  “Alaska. Ever heard of it?”

  “What did you do before all this?” Mr. Smith asked.

  “I was a hunting guide, but now we in the killin’ zombie business. And cousin, business is a-boomin’!”

  “Is that a line from a movie?”

  “Mostly,” James said, fuming, “and as long as you plan on asking these stupid questions, I’ll keep quoting movies. Stop wasting both our time and just ask me what you really wanna know.”

  “I see you lack patience.”

  “No, I don’t have much patience for pointless questions from some guy in a suit while my friends and I are being held against our will, for what? Surviving? I have no patience for that.”

  “Fine Mr. Andderson, have it your way. How did you come by all that gear and the LAPV?”

  “A much better question…” James said and told him the story, starting with the Reclaimers taking their friends and ending with them arriving here.

  “I see,” Mr. Smith said.

  “Have you had anyone else come through lately?” James asked. If they greeted everyone like this, they may have seen the rest of their group.

  “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  “Anyone named Anastasia Romanovski? Or Alexis and Emmett Wolfe?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  “It’s the end of the damn world. Cut the shit and just tell me.”

  “I can’t. Now if you could tell me—” Mr. Smith cut off, raising a hand to his ear. He acted like he was listening to someone talk for a few seconds. “If you’ll excuse me.”

  Mr. Smith stood up and headed for the door.

  “That’s it?” James asked. “You gonna let me go?”

  “Not at this time,” Mr. Smith said, shutting the door behind him.

  “Come on!” James said to the closed door. Then he looked at the mirror. “I know you’re in there. Just get me someone who can tell me what’s going on. We don’t want to cause any trouble; we just want to be on our way!”

  Nothing happened and no one answered. He waited for another few minutes, then decided to use the time to his advantage. If he couldn’t do anything else, maybe he could catch up on some sleep. Resting his hands on the table, he laid his head on top of them. It wasn’t extremely comfortable, but he was tired enough that he was soon asleep.

  The bang of the door opening woke him. A man in Marine woodland cammies walked into the room, while two other Marines stood outside holding M16s.

  “Stand up, please,” the Marine said. James obliged and the Marine unlocked his handcuffs. “Follow me.”

  “Yes, sir,” James said, following behind the Marine. “Where are we going?”

  “Out.”

  The other two Marines fell into step behind James. At least he was free now. Anything was better than being trapped in that room.

  They walked down the hallway in the opposite direction from where they’d first come in. At the end, they turned and climbed a set of stairs, then walked down another hallway, turned, and exited the building. He was in a parking lot with a chain link fence behind him and to his left. Streetlights illuminated the parking lot. Connor, Tank, and Chloe were inside one of the pools of light, unrestrained.

  “Wait here,” the Marine said, getting into a Jeep and driving off. The other Marines stood at attention by the door leading inside.

  “Glad you’re alive, bro,” Connor said as James walked over.

  “Any idea what’s goin’ on?” Tank asked. “They didn’t even talk to me.”

  “Me neither,” Connor said.

  “He talked to me just for a bit, but then he left the room after I told him about how we got the gear,” James said.

  “He talked to me for a while,” Chloe said. “I didn’t know if I should lie or not, so I just told him the truth.”

  “Good call,” James said. “No reason not to cooperate.”

  He looked around. They seemed to be on the Canadian side of Sweet Grass. A street ran to their right for a few blocks and the lights were working. In fact, the whole town was lit up. In front of them, about seven hundred yards away, looked to be a wall around the town. It seemed to be made of a solid block at the base, five or six feet high, with another four feet of metal fence with deterrent wire on top. If he had to guess, this wall surrounded the whole town, or at least the part they were in. A thumping sound drew his attention. He glanced around, looking up at the sky. It grew louder.

  “That has to be a chopper,” Connor said.

  A few seconds later, a Black Hawk helicopter flew over, coming from the east. It went a few hundred yards in front of them and landed in what looked like a baseball field. One of the black LAPVs, like the one they had, drove up to it and some men in black uniforms loaded ten civilians with suitcases onto it. The Black Hawk immediately took off and flew south.

  “Wow,” Tank said. “So this is the real deal.”

  “I think so,” James said.

  “It looks like they have a fully operational base here,” Connor said.

  A black truck turned onto the street they were on and headed their way. The truck looked familiar. It had bars on the windows and—was that a shooting bench on the topper?

  “Emmett!” James exclaimed.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Connor said. “They actually made it.”

  “I’ll finally get to meet the people I’ve been hearin’ all about,” Tank said.

  Emmett pulled up right in front of them. Alexis jumped out of the passenger seat and came around to meet them. Was it just the lighting or did she look even more beautiful than James remembered? She rushed over to James and, for a second, he almost bolted. Women were scarier than zombies,
after all. Instead, he took two steps forward and wrapped his arms around her. They hadn’t known each other for long at all and hadn’t… her hair smelled nice. The feeling of her body pressed tight against his caused him to forget all rational thought, and he didn’t want this moment to end, ever.

  Someone cleared their throat and James looked up to see Emmett glaring at him from behind his daughter. James reluctantly broke the embrace.

  “I was worried about you,” Alexis said, suddenly fidgeting with a strand of loose hair. “I’m glad you’re safe.” She moved to Connor and gave him a quick hug—a lot quicker than the one she’d given him.

  “I’m glad you’re alive, sir,” James said, shaking Emmett’s hand.

  “Same goes for you two,” Emmett said.

  The glare was still in his eyes, but he had a smile on his face as well. What did that mean? Was he going to murder James in his sleep for hugging his daughter like that? It was just a hug. Suddenly, he was more afraid of what was inside the fence than outside of it.

  “This is Tank and Chloe,” James said.

  “Nice to meet you,” Alexis said, shaking each of their hands.

  “You, too,” Chloe said.

  “Pleasure,” Emmett said, doing the same.

  “Pleasure’s all mine,” Tank said.

  “Where’s our gear?” Connor asked.

  “And my vehicle?” Tank asked.

  “They’ll keep it for now, but Saul—excuse me, Captain Miller—said we can discuss what to do tomorrow after you’re settled,” Emmett said.

  “Speaking of,” James said. “Why’d they release us?”

  “Captain Miller was watching your interview,” Emmett said. “When you said my name, he came to me and asked about you guys. I vouched for you, so you better be on your best damn behavior.”

  “Yes, sir,” the four of them said.

  James and Connor looked at Tank.

  “What?” Tank asked. “Why’re you lookin’ at me?”

  “Best behavior,” James said.

  “C’mon,” Tank said. “I’m always on my best behavior.”

  “Did you know the captain before?” Connor asked.

  “We served in Iraq together,” Emmett said, “although he wasn’t a captain then.”

  “Where’s Olive? And the rest of the group?” James found himself asking.

  “She’s safe,” Alexis said, then hesitated. “But we have some catching up to do.”

  “How many?” James asked.

  “A couple,” Alexis said, “but it’s not as bad as it could be.”

  “Come on,” Emmett said. “Let’s head back to the house and get you settled.”

  Emmett climbed into his truck and Alexis took Chloe around to the passenger side. James, Connor, and Tank stood outside for a few seconds, processing all that had just happened. They were safe in a walled town within the protection of the United States military. Apparently, they had a house and might even get their gear back. They’d been thrown a huge curveball, but for once it was a good thing.

  “Let’s go,” James said, putting an arm around each of his brothers as they walked towards the truck.

  “We finally did it, boys,” Tank said.

  “Yes, we did,” Connor said.

  “We ride together,” James said.

  “We die together,” Connor said.

  “Badass brothers for life,” the three of them said in unison.

  Epilogue

  Zeke stood on the side of the road, rifle in his hands. The burning wreckage of a white truck lit the night sky in a fiery glow, which perfectly matched his attitude. He hadn’t seen them blow up the vehicle, but he’d heard it. Those punks! How had three boys done this? They’d taken down a dozen of their group. And how? By charging in like a bunch of imbeciles. They’d left one to snipe. That had been a smart move, but that was their only smart move. Luck, that’s all it had been. Well, their luck would turn soon. When she got back, she’d be furious. If he wasn’t one of her top lieutenants, he’d be worried for his safety. As it was, he worried about the poor saps who were with her. She wouldn’t kill Max, but the other two—Frank and Terg—she wouldn’t hesitate to reclaim them in a fit of rage.

  After he’d realized they were going to kill the rest of his group, he’d dashed into the tree. He could’ve stayed and maybe gotten one or two, but he didn’t. It wasn’t worth his life to try and avenge the death of people he cared nothing for. So he’d gone into the cut and waited until they left. Then he’d come back, once it was safe. When Jezz found those three again, the roles would be reversed and they’d be the ones slaughtered.

  He bent down, continuing to gather all the weapons strewn about. That was another of their imbecilic moves. They’d left all the firearms. Then again, considering how well they were armed, they might not have needed them, but they still should’ve picked them up. He finished, setting the last of them down in the bed of the remaining truck. Jumping on the tailgate, he sat there, waiting. His mind began to drift.

  He let it.

  The others had been talking about a fiery redhead who’d killed two of her own. Then she’d broken out, killing one with a fork, then six more with a knife, before rescuing her group. That made sense to him—killing two to save them all. Jezz couldn’t wrap her mind around it, though. She kept thinking if the redhead was willing to kill, wanted to kill, then she would stay with the Reclaimers and kill. Jezz was wrong, of course. She was a smart woman and a decent leader, but she couldn’t think outside the box. Everything was black or white for her, but in reality, life was varying shades of gray.

  That redhead was presumably the same one who had lured them away from their real targets and set up this ambush. It was painfully obvious to him now. It hadn’t been earlier, not to any of them. If he’d known the details of her escape before or met her in person, it might’ve been different. Then he could’ve known what she would’ve done, but he was out at the ambush all day and never even saw the woman. Besides her red hair, some said she was Russian. He would believe that when he saw her. Whatever or whoever she was, he had to respect her. She did what needed to be done to survive and she did it well. What if she was—

  He killed that thought before it could spawn in his head. There was no room for rogue thoughts.

  Headlights shone ahead on the interstate, heading south towards him. That would be her. He stood up, walking to the other side of the truck. The SUV was speeding down the interstate. She was already angry. It swerved around the side of the blockade, going into the ditch and sending dirt flying behind it. It screeched to a halt next to the flaming truck. Zeke walked over to meet her.

  Jezz stepped out of the black SUV and stalked over to him. Max and Frank got out and followed, stopping a couple of paces behind her. Terg was gone.

  “Where is everyone?” she asked.

  “Dead,” Zeke said in his heavy Russian accent.

  “All of them?” she hissed.

  “Da,” Zeke said.

  Jezz turned quicker than any of them—save Zeke—could react. She drew her knife and lunged on Frank, driving it into his chest. He barely put up a fight as she continued to drive the knife into his heart—once, twice, two dozen times. She stood up, wiping the blood from the blade on her pants. When she turned to face Zeke, specks of blood showed on her face and shirt. Her smile sent shivers down his spine. Nothing else could do that.

  “What happened?” she asked in a much calmer tone.

  “Three men attacked us,” Zeke said. “They were the brothers, I think, and the big man from three nights ago.”

  “Ah,” Jezz said, “so they came for their group and killed all of my Reclaimers. They will have to pay for this.”

  “We haven’t had somethin’ this bad happen since those rich kids escaped,” Max said.

  “No, Max,” Jezz said. “This is a lot worse than six brats escaping our ambush.”

  “Did you find her?” Zeke asked.

 
“No,” Jezz spat. “We lost her in the mountains to the south. There were too many roads and she is clever.”

  “What do we do now?” Max asked.

  “They must be reclaimed,” Jezz said. “Everyone else can wait, but those three must be reclaimed above all.”

  “So we hunt?” Zeke said, lifting his rifle.

  “Yes,” Jezz said, absently caressing the edge of her blood-smeared knife. “We hunt.”

  Thanks for reading WOLF PACK!

  Wow, what a ride, right? I hope you enjoyed the third installment in the BC series. I tried to make up for the cliffhanger in Battleborn.

  Get ready for even more of the Wolf Pack in the next book. Yes, this is not just a trilogy, it’s a series of five books! The next one is going to be fun because the whole pace of the story is going to slow down, for a bit at least. I’m going to dive into more of how the outbreak started and how the characters deal with the choices they’ve made so far in the story.

  Well, that’s all for now!

  I hope you’ve enjoyed the third book in The Brother’s Creed series. The story will be continued in Book 4: Bad Company!

  If you want to know right when the next book becomes available and stay up-to-date with my writing, make sure to sign up for my mailing list HERE!

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  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  This may be getting a little redundant but as always, I couldn’t have finished this book without the help of numerous people. Huge thanks to:

  Jesus, you keep lighting the path before me and helping me along the way I’m meant to tread.

  My wife, your constant love and support allows me to continue to write!