“It’s okay,” I called. “I won’t hurt you.”
“Did any of them follow you?” A soldier asked.
He was a young man, probably no older than twenty, with dark brown eyes. The skin that wasn’t smeared with black soot was tanned, and his light brown hair was shaved close to his head.
I glanced over my shoulder. “I don’t think so.”
“You bit?”
I shook my head.
He jerked his head toward the four wheeler. “What do you got in those boxes?”
“Some canned goods and water.” I pulled out a bottle. “Would you like some?”
The soldier stepped forward and helped me take the supplies off the back of the vehicle. As we handed out the food, I examined the group. The oldest couldn’t have been more than forty-five, and the youngest was six. It made my stomach churn to see that there were only three kids. When everyone had a can, I sat and spooned out the cold contents. I wasn’t really hungry, but it’d been almost a day since I last ate, so I figured I needed some food. We were too afraid to start a fire, so we huddled together for warmth. After the sun went down, we climbed into the back of the truck and crawled under our blankets. The soldiers were relieved by the civilians, and they lay on the benches to sleep.
“What happened at the complex?” I asked quietly.
The soldier who’d helped me earlier stirred. “We were attacked by zombies.”
“How did they get into the base?”
“They were already in there. They came in with the ambulances.” He took a deep breath, and I was sure I heard a shudder in his voice, as if he was trying to hold back tears. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, I was sworn to secrecy, but who’s going to reprimand me? All the commanders are dead. We had scientists at the base, people who were studying the creatures. There was never supposed to be any civilians, just infected. When they showed up at the gate, we couldn’t turn them away. Somehow the secret got out that we were experimenting on the undead, and a rumor started that we actually had created them. The people threatened to riot, so we locked the complex. No one in, no one out until order was restored.
“They attacked in the middle of the night. I don’t know if it was one of the subjects or a civilian who got bit and turned. I don’t even know how many there were. I was on patrol in the building closest to the gate, and we heard the screams from the far end of the complex. We were given orders that if anything happened, we were supposed to gather up the people in our bunker and head out. There were protocols to make sure the zombies didn’t get out. I followed orders. I tried to get everyone to leave, but most of them wanted to stay and help the others.” He leaned forward so his face was inches from mine. “They’d set up a failsafe. Bombs had been planted in the sickbay and lab just in case anything like that happened.
“That’s why everyone was supposed to be evacuated, but those things wouldn’t die. They kept running around the yard, trying to eat people, and catching everything on fire. The only way to put ‘em down is to put one right between the eyes.” He emphasized his point by placing his finger on his forehead. He leaned back on the bench.
“Did the military create them?”
The man took a breath, moments passing before he answered. “No,” he said flatly. “We were looking for a way to destroy them.”
“There was a man with short black hair about forty years old who would have showed up the other morning on a four wheeler like mine. Did you see him?”
“I saw a lot of people come into that place. And a lot that didn’t come back out.”
“So you don’t know what happened to him?”
The soldier shook his head. “If he was in any other bunker but mine, he’d be dead.”
“Does anyone know how this all started?” I waited for the soldier to answer, and when he didn’t, I glanced around at the faces of the others.
They stared at me with blank expressions.
“No one? No one knows what’s going on?” I turned back to the soldier.
He shrugged his right shoulder and then turned so his back was to me.
I pulled my sleeping bag up to my chin. Someone had to know something. There was no way zombies could be walking the earth and everyone was oblivious to how they got there. I averted my gaze to the sky and stared at the stars. I thought about my parents, and tears welled in my eyes. I buried my head in my sleeping bag, sobbing softly until I fell asleep.
***
I was jerked out of a dreamless sleep by the sounds of moaning. I poked my head out of the bag and stared at the person sleeping next to me. I nudged their shoulder, hoping they’d roll over and be quiet. Then the sound came again, closer, and I shot straight up. The soldier who slept on the bench next to me was already up and searching for his weapon. The moan sounded again, echoed by several other grunts and sighs from the trees. I jumped out of my sleeping bag and scrambled to the side of the truck. Clicking on the flashlight, I shone the light out as far as it would go. More moans filled the air, and I caught a zombie in the beam. I pointed it out to the soldier. He nodded.
“If they get any closer, I’ll fire. We don’t have a lot of ammo, so I don’t want to waste it if I don’t have to.”
Another soldier went to the truck’s cab and started the engine. The others awoke and wondered what was going on. A moan sounded at the back of the truck, followed by a woman’s scream, and the group turned to see what had happened. I flashed the light toward the woman just as she moved out of the way. The zombie grabbed for her hair. The soldier raised his weapon and fired. The shot caught the creature right between the eyes and it fell over backward. Both the soldier and I almost fell over as the truck lurched forward and took off down the highway. We sat on the bench and took a collective sigh.
“Is everyone all right?” He grabbed the flashlight out of my hand and shone it on the people. They nodded as the beam passed their face. “Good.” He handed the light back.
“What are we going to do?” I whispered.
The soldier sniffed. “We need to find other survivors. If there are any. Then we need to form an army and destroy this menace.”
“I say we head to Florida,” a voice spoke in the darkness.
I squinted to find the speaker, but it was too dark. “Why?”
“It’s the most easily defendable place. We put some mines in the water so nothing can get us from the sea, and we place a fence on the border. There’s only one way in and one way out.”
The soldier turned and looked at me. “Sounds like a logical option to me.”
I shrugged. “It’s not like I have any ideas.”
He stood and pounded on the roof of the cab. “We’re going to Florida.”
CHAPTER 4
It took us three days to get to the Florida border, and most of that was accomplished by driving night and day. The farther east we went, the more hordes of zombies we ran into. We decided it was best just to stop for fuel and food. We were lucky not to lose any members of our group.
After we made it to the border, we realized we weren’t the first to think it was the safest place. A group had already set up a perimeter fence and funneled all the traffic through a central location. I thought it was strange that something had been built so fast. How long does it take to erect a fence on one hundred and sixty miles? How long had it been since my family and I were first attacked? I couldn’t remember. The days mushed together in a blur. There were guards with guns everywhere, and I was pretty sure they weren’t all military, even though they were dressed in camouflage. We followed a short chain of cars to Orlando where the command station had been set up around Disney World. There we were expected to register so we could be reunited with any surviving family.
I’d been to Disney World once before, and it’d been one of the greatest times in my life. It was for my ninth birthday. We came down in July, which was a mistake. It was so very hot and the lines were so long. I don’t remember much of the rides, but I do remember what a relief it was to be out of the h
eat. I thought air conditioning was the greatest invention ever. Mom, Dad, and I all got mouse ears with our names stitched on the back. This trip was nothing like that. Although, it was still hot. Small camps had been set up around Epcot. No one smiled at the happiest place on earth, and I wondered how many loved ones had been lost.
The transport truck stopped at the end of a long line of cars, and the others and I followed the crowd to the golf ball. Spaceship Earth had been transformed from a ride into a receiving center for refugees. The lines moved quickly through the various checkpoints, and I gave my name to the person sitting at the terminal, who typed it into the computer.
“Do you have any surviving family members?” The woman stared at me with soft brown eyes and waited for an answer.
I shook my head.
“How old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
“And you don’t have any grandparents or aunts or uncles around?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“What are their names?”
I told her the names of my relatives. The woman typed them into the computer.
I tried to lean around and see the screen. “Are any of them still alive?”
The woman grimaced. “I’m not seeing anything, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re dead. It’s possible they’re not in the system yet. If they do register with us, they’ll pop up. Do you know the names of any relatives who have recently been killed by the zombie horde?”
I nodded.
“What were their names?”
I told her, and she typed in the information.
“Okay, if anyone from your family registers with us, we’ll let you know.”
“What am I supposed to do now?”
The woman grabbed a piece of paper off her printer, handed it to me, and pointed toward another line. I took the information to the back of the line. When it was my turn, I handed the paper to the man behind the desk. He looked at it briefly and stamped it before telling me to get on the monorail and head to the Disney Contemporary Resort. I was given a room and a schedule of classes I was required to attend. I stared at it in disbelief. This was way too weird. Zombies had just attacked, were actually still roaming the country, and I was supposed to go to school? These people took the normal thing to a whole new level. Of course I was only fifteen, so I didn’t really expect to get drafted into a zombie-killing army. I supposed they needed to do something with me and the other orphans, and this was their best solution. I went to my room, threw my sparse belongings onto the floor, and with a sigh, collapsed onto the soft bed. I was able to relax for a couple minutes before there was a knock on the door.
The girl standing in the hall was about my age and had long, sandy-blonde hair and green eyes. Freckles danced across her thin nose, and a smile was on her thin lips.
“Hi.” She held her hand out. “I’m Tanya. We heard there was a new girl on the floor.”
I glanced over Tanya’s shoulder. Two girls stood behind her, one with black hair cut in a spike and the other with brown hair curled in ringlets. The first thing that popped into my mind was Carmen and the Baa-Baa Twins. I tried to hold back my contempt, to give them a chance, but I was tired from being on the road. I did my best, though.
“This is Nancy,” she pointed to the one with brown hair, “and this is Pearl,” she pointed to the other girl, who both nodded in my direction. “If you want, we’ll give you a tour of the place.”
I nodded and closed the door. What I really wanted was a shower, but I figured these girls might have some answers as to what was going on.
“There’s not too much to show,” Tanya said. “Most of the hotel houses the refugees, except the conference rooms have been converted into classrooms. They think we need to continue our education and life like zombies haven’t taken it over.” She snorted a laugh. “Like we’re ever going to have real jobs after this!”
We stepped into the elevator and headed into the lobby.
“Who’s they?” I asked.
“The Families. There are five of them who set up shop down here in Florida. There are the Johnsons, the Lees, the Scorvids, the Youngs, and the Sanchezs. They put up the fence along the border and bought the weapons for the army.” Tanya held up two fingers on each hand and bent them like quotes when she said the last word.
I furrowed my brow. “The attack has only been going on for about a week. How could they have set something up so fast?”
The three girls stared at me. “Where are you from?” asked Pearl.
“Oregon.”
“Well, the attack might have just reached you, but it’s been happening on the East Coast for about three weeks now.”
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. The girls filed out, and I stared after them in confusion.
“Three weeks? That’s impossible. Nobody ever said anything. Or warned us.”
It couldn’t be true. Three weeks? That would have made it two weeks before it reached us. Assuming my math was correct, but that was impossible. We never heard a thing. The news surely would have picked up on it. Someone would have said something.
Nancy chuckled. “What were they going to say? The dead have risen from the grave and are attacking the living? From what I’ve heard, they wanted to keep it quiet. They thought they could take care of it before it got out of hand. They tried to keep it contained, but it spread too quickly.”
“Who are they?”
Nancy shrugged one shoulder and folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t know. The government.”
The three girls turned and headed toward the front doors. After we were out on the lawn, they turned back to the hotel and Tanya pointed at the building.
“The third floor is where all the guys are staying.” She looked at me. “Well, the good ones, anyway.” She snorted again and headed farther into the grass.
Guys? Who the hell cared about guys at this point in time?
“Wait a second. I’m not done asking about the zombies.”
Tanya didn’t slow her pace. “What else do you want to know?”
“Uh, lots of things actually, but I’ll start simple. Why more wasn’t done? Why wasn’t there some warning?”
Tanya stopped and clicked her tongue. “I don’t know. I’m not in charge of that kind of thing.”
I felt my face flush, and I balled my hands into fists. Yep, I was right. Carmen. Tanya obviously didn’t care about anyone or anything except herself. I figured I’d better keep my questions simple. If she didn’t know details, maybe she had information on the bigger picture.
“What about the president? Where is he?”
“If he’s not dead, he’s probably holed up in that secret mountain of his.”
“What about the people from other countries? Why haven’t we asked them for help?”
Tanya stared at me. She wasn’t even going to attempt to answer. I fought back the urge to scream at her. I was getting nowhere. I needed to find someone who knew what was going on. We stared at each other for a moment, our eyes narrowed to slits. Eventually, she turned away.
“C’mon, girls, let’s go find someone cooler.”
The three of them headed toward the lake. Pearl paused for a moment and stared back at me. I threw my hands into the air before stomping to my room and slamming the door shut. After flinging myself onto the bed, I buried my face in my pillow and screamed. How could they be so stupid? The world was slowly spiraling into chaos and they pretended as if nothing was wrong. It was frustrating and maddening and ridiculous. I sat up on the bed. It was also something I couldn’t spend my time worrying about. If they wanted to pretend nothing was going on, fine. That was their problem, not mine.
I went to the bathroom and stepped into the shower. It was human nature to try to pretend bad things didn’t happen. It helped ease the stress. The brain was actually very sophisticated when it came to burying bad things. In some cases, it even created alternative personalities to deal with the hardship. Of course those suppressed me
mories never actually went away, they manifested in other ways. Some people drank, others became killers.
I doubted that what Tanya and the rest of Florida experienced was that serious. I guessed they were probably afflicted with acute stress reaction, which arose from a traumatic or terrifying event. I tried to remember exactly what the symptoms were, but without my psychology book in front of me, it was a little difficult. The initial stage was the subject going into a type of daze and then they could either withdraw further or become highly agitated.
I washed my hair as I thought about it, and I stopped abruptly. Of course! Why hadn’t I seen it before? My parents showed classic symptoms. I probably hadn’t seen it because I was more than likely experiencing a little bit of it myself. It almost gave them a good excuse to justify their actions, but it wasn’t enough. They should have been able to pull themselves out of their daze and focus on the important things. Like making sure their only daughter was safe.
I rinsed out the shampoo before slamming the water off. I dried off, heading back into my room to pull on a clean pair of shorts and a t-shirt. I ran a comb through my hair, then lay down. I stared at the ceiling. It was unfair for me to be mad at my parents. After all, it was their brain forcing them to react, but I couldn’t help it. They should have been stronger. They should still be there. I rolled onto my side and stared at the wall. I had to stop thinking about it. I was going to drive myself crazy. I couldn’t change the past. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
A while later, I heard a soft knocking on my door. I rolled over and looked at the clock. Six thirty pm. I rolled off the bed with a groan and then opened the door. Pearl stood before me, and I set my jaw.
Life After The Undead Omnibus [Books 1-2] Page 4
