Zombies! (Book 3): Violence Solves Everything

by Merritt, R. S.

  Kelly rolled the dice and moved her character around the board again. Her character was a red checker and the board was drawn on the floor of the kitchen in red sharpie. Zoey still giggled incessantly every time she landed on the slide that was connected to the drawing of a toilet. Kelly loved to hear that laughter. She’d gone too long without the laughter of her girls in her life. The long journey down from Rhode Island had taken a toll on her and Zoey’s laughter was just the medicine she needed to feel like her old self again.

  Zoey laughing buoyed her spirits, but it also threatened to pull her back into her despair. She had three other daughters and a husband that were still missing. She’d hated the plan that Tony and Randy had come up with right from the beginning. She hated even calling it a plan. It had been more like a hail Mary last resort. She’d only supported it because she knew at this point in the game a Hail Mary was needed. If the girls disappeared now, they may never find them again.

  Kelly hadn’t really been tracking the days on a calendar but now that Randy was gone, she found herself obsessed with it. The red sharpie she’d used to draw the faux chutes and ladders game on the kitchen floor for her and Zoey was also used to track the days Tony and Randy had been gone. She lay awake at night trying to work out how many days it would take for those two to get captured and then somehow work their way into the standing guard at the facility then get the girls and escape. There were so many moving pieces and so much that could go wrong that she kicked herself for ever agreeing to let them go in the first place.

  The one thing she found solitude in was that she still hadn’t been able to come up with a better plan. When you have no real intel then you have to go with the best plan you can come up with. She figured they must’ve gotten captured at least or they’d have come back by now. So that part of the plan should be in motion. She drove herself crazy trying to estimate how many days it’d take to go from prisoner to worker to escapee. All assuming the girls were even in the same facility and assuming they kept all the girls together.

  She tried hard not to think of the massively obese elephant in the room. What did she do if they never came back? She couldn’t just sit in this moldy house playing fake chutes and ladders until the world finally collapsed around them. They were rationing food and water but at some point, they’d need to leave to gather more supplies if they were going to stay. She was thinking she’d need to go on a scavenging trip within the next day or two. She was paranoid about leaving the house though. If something happened to her while she was out who’d take care of Zoey? What if a Zombie got in the house while she was out and went after Zoey? What if she attracted the Zombies back to the house and they ended up having to abandon the house? How would Tony and Randy find them then when they finally escaped and came back with the rest of the girls?

  How long should she wait here with Zoey before giving up and leaving? That was the question weighing heaviest on her mind. She couldn’t stay here too long scavenging, or the brotherhood would end up spotting them and they’d become prisoners too. They had enough food for another day at least so she decided to just bask in the joy that was Zoey playing the game they’d made up together and worry about it the next night.

  They were on the fourth game of the day and Zoey was telling Kelly all about how Eric had helped save their lives when there was a tapping at the window. Kelly immediately put the glowstick they’d been using to play the Chutes and Ladders game with into her pocket and grabbed her nine-millimeter handgun off the counter. She motioned for Zoey to stay behind the counter as she moved towards the window.

  Her heart was beating fast with worry and anticipation. To avoid getting shot in the face by knocking on the front door or the sliding glass door they’d come up with a system when returning to one of the houses after being gone for whatever reason. They’d knock lightly on one window then do exactly five taps on another window. Kelly knew it must be either Tony or Randy outside. She’d grabbed the gun because you could never be too careful. They’d come up with rules and those rules had kept them alive when everyone around them kept dying. Her heart beating out of her chest was because she didn’t know who to expect to see on the other side of the window.

  Not bothering to try peeling back the curtains she’d taped to the window frame she opened the front door instead. She stuck her head out and saw a shadowy figure coming around the hedge towards her. Her heart dropped only seeing one person. That must mean either Tony or Randy was dead or still captured. Then another figure emerged from around the hedge carrying a small figure in his arms. He put the little girl down he was carrying, and she immediately made a bee line for the front door.

  “Mommy!” Doreen yelled completely forgetting about keeping quiet outside at the sight of her mom. Kelly scooped up her little love and carried her in the house so any more noises out of her wouldn’t bring every Zombie in town to their family reunion.

  One by one the others stomped in. Zoey came out from around the counter astounding a shocked Myriah and Caitlyn. Caitlyn lost it when she saw and fell to her knees crying with joy. Tony stood off to the side taking it all in. He was proud to have been a part of all this. Zoey whispered something to Kelly and Tony watched as Kelly went to the girl standing shyly off to the side.

  “Hi Ali. Zoey has told us all about you and your brave uncle Eric.” Kelly said squatting down in front of the girl. Ali just nodded shyly looking lost and alone. Randy walked over to join them.

  “We know you’ve lost a lot since this all started. We wanted to let you know for everything you’ve done to be a friend to Zoey and the other girls and for everything your uncle did to help you guys make it we want you to consider yourself one of our daughters. If you’d like that?” Randy said and held out his arms to the young girl. She sprang into his arms almost knocking him over backwards and buried her face in his neck crying with the surge of emotions she wasn’t able to handle.

  Tony walked over and hugged each of the girls as well. After everyone had hugged and cried and been checked over for injuries it was dawn and time to go to bed.

  “Alright, everyone needs to try and get some sleep. Once the sun goes down, we’re going to work on getting out of Florida and away from the crazies running this place. I want everyone to keep quiet today and be ready to move out at first night.” Kelly rolled her eyes at his play on words, but she couldn’t keep the grin off her face. Randy wondered if any of them were actually going to be able to sleep enough to move out that night. He didn’t think they had much choice though. They wouldn’t get another chance if the brotherhood located them. They’d be taken out in the street and shot gangland style. As far as Randy was concerned it was time to find out how California had made it through this whole Zombie thing.

  Epilogue

  Amos pulled the sheet back from the half-eaten face of Senator Wilcox’s older sister. He’d landed at the Sanford airport the same morning as the swarm had hit the building killing a patrols worth of his brotherhood guards and even worse taking out the principal. The principal had ben gnawed on by the Zombies, but the actual cause of death didn’t require a coroner with a doctorate degree in pathology to figure out. The big hole in the back of her head lined up well with the smaller entry hole in her cheek. She’d been shot.

  Amos had his men working on figuring out who’d died during the swarming and who was still missing. So far, he knew the girls they’d picked up most recently for the bride program were missing and he knew that their father and another man had been given weapons and asked to help defend the facility against the swarm. He remembered the two men from their run in on the toll road. It looked like he should’ve shot them down right then and there instead of assuming the Zombies would do the job for him.

  He gave orders to get the drones up and send out patrols. He gave orders to alert the other regional commanders and send information on what to look for. The senator was going to want pay back for the death of his sister. Amos knew since the principal had died in his region the senator would look at him
as the man responsible so he either needed to find the people who’d actually done it and capture them or he’d be the one left to bleed out in a pen full of hungry Zombies.

  Authors Notes

  Thank you so much for joining me on this journey through the apocalypse with Randy and crew. I’m watching the movie of their adventures in my head and trying to capture as much of it as I can in these books. People ask me what is going to happen to them next and I honestly know about as much as you do until the story actually unfolds in my mind’s eye. As I type and picture what’s going on in that world things can change in a heartbeat. People die that I don’t want to see go but if it’s true to the story then it needs to happen that way. The characters take on a life of their own and each one does things their own way.

  I come from a long line of men serving in the military. My grandfather was a Naval Gunner’s Mate at D-Day. My dad was a force recon scout sniper in the USMC before getting out and serving in the USCG for 20 years. My brother served as an enlisted ‘grunt’ then as an officer in the USMC after attending college. I did my time haze grey and underway on a Nuclear Cruiser. People in the military definitely have a different mindset and bring different skills to the table that I think would better enable them to survive in a world like this one. I also think that same mentality could be abused by superiors to make them look down on the very people they should be protecting.

  “The only thing needed for evil to win is for good men to stand by and do nothing.”

  I’m looking forward to the next novel in this series. Seeing how Kyler copes with learning the truths about the brotherhood he’s joining. Seeing how far Randy can get his family from the craziness of that same brotherhood. Thank you again for reading this far and I hope to see you again in the next book!

  Other Books by R S Merritt

  If you are enjoying the Zombies! Series please check out some of these other books by R S Merritt:

  The Zournal Series!

  Steve wakes up one morning after a horrible couple of weeks in which he's lost his girlfriend, his job, his savings and the majority of his self-respect. Dragging himself out of bed he sleepily wanders over to the window with a warm bottled water and a handful of Advil. Looking out of his apartment window he sees people running around crazily and a bunch of burning shrubbery. He decides to go back to sleep and see if it all goes away. When he wakes up the next time it turns out the view from his fourth-floor apartment wasn't a nightmare. Armed with a blunt samurai sword and some stolen steak knives he ventures out into the fray.

  These aren't your standard Zombies, but Steve isn't your standard Zombie fighter either. Join him in book 1 as he heads out to check on his parents and try to survive in a world that's gone crazy...

  Book 1 - "It all started"

  Book 2 - "Cruising The 'Poc"

  Book 3 - "Scorched Earth"

  Book 4 - "Reap What You Sow"

  Book 5 - "Feeling Lucky?"

  Book 6 - "The Final Countdown"

  Son of the Keeper Series

  Over 2,000 years ago the Xandians were forced to flee their world by a horde made up of dark forces that had spread throughout the universes like a plague. The Xandian king and a handful of nobles stood alone on the wall against wave after wave of the horde forces as the last remnants of the Xandian people fled through a portal to the planet of earth. They've been fighting and protecting this planet from being overrun by evil ever since.

  The horde continues to grow stronger as the Xandians have gradually had their forces diminished. When their queen is killed their last hope switches to the potential powers of an eleven-year-old boy whom no one has told may be the greatest magical force of all time. The day comes quickly for him to embrace his birth right and fight to save not only his own people but all of the people of earth and ultimately of the universe itself.

  Son of the Keeper: Book 1: “The Principles of Magic”

  Son of the Keeper: Book 2: "The Weight of the Crown"

  Son of the Keeper: Book 3: "The Fate of the World"