Zombie Rules (Book 7): The Fifteens

by Achord, David

  “I’ll try to bring a tractor and diesel fuel out in a couple of days. Until then, you’ve got plenty to do.”

  “You’re leaving?” Lisa asked.

  I ignored her pleading stare. “I’ve got a lot of work waiting on me. Like I said, I’ll be back in a day or two.”

  There were more protests. Tory had the nerve to suggest leaving the SUV here and I walk back. I withheld the urge to flip them off and left the gate open. Their lazy asses could walk down the hill and shut it.

  The rain was coming down hard and it was having an almost hypnotic effect. I was already fatigued and having a difficult time keeping my eyes open. I checked my watch. It was still a couple of hours before dinner time. Finding a side road, I turned, parked, and killed the engine.

  It was dark when I awakened, which meant I slept longer than I had intended. And, my bladder was protesting. Ignoring the rain, I stepped out of the SUV to relieve myself. I was in midstream when a flash of lightning illuminated the area. It was then I realized I was not alone.

  Zeds had notoriously bad vision, even the fifteens. The rain and darkness diminished it even further. Even so, they started a cacophony of snarls and stared ambling toward me. I figured they caught my scent somehow. There were seven of them. I’d taken on larger numbers by myself, but I could tell immediately, these were faster than average. I didn’t care. I walked as quietly as I could toward them and pulled out a nice hand-forged drop-point knife that was almost a foot long.

  I’d been killing zeds for years. They had no fighting skills, but there were certain nuances to killing them. All they knew was to dive in, grab something if they could, and find a fleshy area to bite down on. Ducking and sidestepping was the norm. Striking quick at the head was important. If your blade became stuck in bone, get it out quickly or leave it and get ready for the next attack. There was a certain way in which you stabbed them in the head to prevent your blade from getting stuck. Stabbing through the eye sockets was the easiest. Under the jawbone or through the ears too. You had to avoid the thick parts of the skull though.

  It was over in minutes, although one of them almost got me. He’d jumped on my back and was close to sinking his teeth in my neck, but I’d managed to reverse my grip on my knife and buried it into his eye socket at the last second.

  I surveyed my kills while catching my breath. That one almost got me had me worried somewhat. He appeared as though he had not been a zed long. I inspected his face closely to see if I recognized him, but I didn’t. The prevailing belief is, due to my immunity, even if I got bit, I would not get infected. But if that one zed had managed to bite deep enough into my neck, I could have bled out, and dead is dead.

  He was wearing a ragged pair of Dickies, a torn shirt, and heavy Red Wing work boots, the kind with steel toes. I thought about it a moment before unlacing them and taking them off his feet. The leather was still in decent shape and the soles were not overly worn. I even took a whiff. They smelled bad, which meant they were probably no good, but I took them anyway. Good boots were hard to find these days.

  Finally, I checked myself out. Using the headlights, I could see a fair amount of zed blood on me. I’d need to wash myself down if I didn’t want to get asked a lot of questions, so I stood in the rain for several minutes, kneading my clothes until I decided I couldn’t get them any cleaner, and then headed home.

  I arrived at the main gate a little after eleven. Brenda waved at me through the barred window but did not come outside in the rain. I stopped and walked in.

  “You’re soaking wet,” she remarked. I nodded but did not explain. “Did you get them settled in their new home?”

  “I hope so,” I said.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, Zach, but I did not care for them.”

  “That seems to be the consensus around here,” I said. “Have I missed anything?”

  “Not a thing. It’s been quiet.”

  We chatted some more about her son and Jorge before I parked the SUV in the motor pool. On impulse, I got into one of the golf carts and made the rounds. The steady rain tended to put guards to sleep and I intended to make sure that didn’t happen.

  All the posts were occupied, and everyone was awake, although I think maybe Brenda radioed everyone to let them know I was out and about. When I rolled up on post five, I could see the dim glow of a light—a candle probably. When I climbed the steps, Riley was standing in the door waiting on me. I tried to keep an aloof demeanor.

  “Hi, Zach,” she said. “Come on in.”

  I did not intend to go in but found myself following her. She shut the door behind me and turned on a battery-operated lantern. She was wearing loose-fitting jeans and a plain blue T-shirt. She was lanky and fit. Even the loose clothing didn’t hide it. We had a long two seconds of eye contact before she looked me over.

  “You’re soaking wet,” she said.

  “Yeah, I’ve been out in the rain.”

  She grinned slightly. “Back home, when I had night duty and it was raining, I sometimes stripped and bathed under the moonlight. For some reason, I always thought it was fun.”

  I chuckled. “Did anyone ever see you?”

  “There was a man with our group that I’m pretty sure watched me a couple of times, but he never said anything. He was an older man, close to the same age as my dad. I made a pass at him once and it scared the crap out of him.”

  I chuckled again. “You intimidated him. I suppose if you’re inclined, you could do the same here. There’s nobody within eyesight.”

  “Don’t tempt me. It’s been boring as hell. I brought a book to read, but it’s not very good. You know, you smell like dead zeds. What’ve you been doing?”

  “Don’t tell anyone, but I ran into a couple of zeds earlier,” I said.

  “Where? Nearby?”

  “About ten miles from here. After dropping off my sister and her idiot friends, I found a place to park and took a nap.”

  “Let me guess, you woke up, saw them, and decided to have some fun,” she said.

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  “You should’ve taken someone with you, or even better, taken me.”

  “I probably should have. I was going to take my dog, but the kids were playing with her,” I said.

  “Yeah, you should’ve taken me.” Her voice was lower now, huskier.

  She reached out and put a hand on me. I don’t know how it happened, but I found myself embracing her. It was a deep passionate kiss, and if it wasn’t for the field phone squawking, I’m not sure what would have happened. I pulled my head back, but our hips were still pressed against one another.

  “You’re hard,” she murmured.

  That was an understatement. I was so hard I could’ve been a poster boy for a Viagra advertisement. I worked some space between us and then gestured at the field phone.

  “You should probably answer it,” I said.

  Riley did so, and after a moment, held out the handset. “They’re asking for you.”

  I took it from her outstretched hand. When my fingers touched hers, it was like a charge of electricity went through me, and I was suddenly anxious to get out of there.

  “This is Zach,” I said into the phone.

  “Hey, Zach, it’s Ruth. Do you need anything?”

  “Nah, I was just checking on things. You have TOC duty again?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I know. I’m filling in for someone who called in sick. We’ve got a rash of laziness around here lately.”

  She was right. The distribution of the fliers and the upcoming election seemed to have stirred up something. People shirking work duties was becoming more and more frequent. My suggestion was to kick a few of them out to get the rest in line, but they were worried the action would have the opposite intended effect.

  “I can take over for you,” I suggested to Ruth.

  “No, that’s okay,” she said. “I get off at two and I’ll have the rest of the day off. Me and the little one are going up to Fort Detrick to
spend the day with Justin. He better be well-rested,” she said it with a slight snicker.

  I handed the phone back to Riley who put it back on the receiver.

  “Do you want to hang out a while?” she asked.

  Hell yes I want to hang out.

  “I better not,” I said. “I’ve got a long day tomorrow and need to get some sleep.”

  She didn’t respond verbally. Instead, she gave a slight nod of her head. I don’t know if she expected me to kiss her goodbye or something, but I didn’t do it.

  “Alright, goodnight then,” I said and exited the guard post. I drove away feeling guilty as hell. I’d never been unfaithful to Kelly. Never even thought about it.

  Until Riley came along.

  I’d had a couple of women flirt with me before, but I was not even the slightest bit interested. But I had to admit to myself, I was tempted with Riley. If not for that phone ringing, I probably would not have stopped myself. What the hell was I thinking? I kissed her—that itself was an act of infidelity.

  I parked the cart and made my way back to our suite. The kids were asleep, as well as Kelly. They all looked peaceful, serene. It made me feel worse than I already did. I tiptoed into the bathroom, stripped, and showered. Kelly woke up when I crawled into bed.

  “Did you get them settled in?” she asked in a whisper.

  “Yep, all settled in,” I whispered back. “Hopefully, that’ll be the end of it. Let’s get some sleep.”

  She was lying on her side when I slipped into bed. I got under the blanket and spooned her. She scooted her butt up against me and wiggled it slightly.

  “Someone’s horny,” she muttered.

  I’ve done some things in my life that some people would have interpreted as criminal, evil. But at that moment, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more ashamed in my life.

  Chapter 38 – Training

  There were a dozen teenagers staring expectantly when I walked into the classroom. Some of them appeared eager, and some acted like this was the last place they wanted to be, even though this program was voluntary.

  Typical teenagers, I thought, and then remembered it wasn’t so long ago I was exactly like them.

  Oh, there were differences between the teenagers of nine years ago and the teens today. The teenagers of today did not have problems with excessive acne, nor were they fat-bodies or steroid enhanced. These kids were lean. Sinewy. They were a product of a lifestyle without sugar products, unenhanced foods, and days filled with hard labor.

  Not all of them lived within Mount Weather, but once a month they would come in for a day of specialized training. I had plenty of other tasks to do, but since I was the one who started this program, it would’ve been wrong of me to exclude myself from being one of the instructors.

  There was a lectern, dry erase boards, and a projector which I could connect to my laptop. As I was doing so, the normally noisy kids became suddenly silent. I looked up and was surprised to see Senator VanAllen and a couple of her cronies walking in.

  “Good morning all of you future leaders,” she said cheerily and then fixed her gaze on me. “Good morning, Zachary,” she said.

  The smile now had a little bit of a sneer added in and don’t think I missed the part where she chose once again intentionally called me by the wrong name.

  “Good morning, Senator, and again, the name is Zachariah. What can I do for you?”

  “We’ve heard so many wonderful things about your classes, we felt we would be remiss if we did not witness this training for ourselves.”

  The two of us were making pointed eye contact with each other during the repartee. She was still smiling, but there was no warmth in it—more like a challenge. If she thought she was going to goad me into some type of hostile response, she was wrong. I waved a hand toward some empty chairs. “By all means.”

  Rochelle and her little ass-kissers acted as though she was royalty and I’d asked her to sit among the commoners. I kept a poker face and waited until the theatrics were over. Once they had taken their seats, I ensured the presentation was projected onto the screen, tapped the start icon, and faced my audience.

  “Alright, this morning we’ll finish up supply line logistics,” I said. “So, let’s do a quick review.”

  I recapped last month’s presentation which analyzed the average water and food intake of the Mount Weather community and then spent the next hour going over the statistical projections of population growth along with maintaining food and water stores for the next ten years. The last slide was blank, letting me know the PowerPoint file was completed. I gazed at my audience.

  “At least all of you are still awake,” I quipped. One of the kids chuckled. “I know it’s a boring topic, but it’s one of many essential functions to ensure the survival of a community. The history books are full of stories of tribes, villages, even entire empires dying out due to famine. What I want you to learn from this is that famine can be prevented, even during catastrophic events, but only through proper logistics planning and execution. As future leaders, you may be tasked with leaving Mount Weather and be a leader in a new community. If the community is several hundred miles from here, you’ll be on your own.”

  I closed out the presentation and was about to open another file when I saw a hand raise out of the corner of my eye. She was a sixteen-year-old girl from the Petersville community. She was sitting beside Serena, whose bulge was pronounced; she looked like she was ready to give birth at any moment.

  “Yes, Janea?” I asked. She was one of the few kids who had her own laptop open and was actively taking notes. She was a cute brunette with bright hazel eyes, and frankly, I was surprised she was still single and childless.

  “Do you really have a photographic memory?” she asked.

  “I have an excellent memory, but I honestly don’t know if I have what you would call a photographic memory.”

  Another hand shot up. This was Isidro, Brenda’s kid. He was twelve and small for his age due to malnourishment when he was a small child. Even so, he was smart, inquisitive about everything, and full of energy. This class was normally restricted to teenagers, but Isidro was an exception. I acknowledged him with a head nod.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “I know you’re immune, but I don’t know how that happened. And, someone said something the other day that kind of confused me.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “They seemed to believe the zed virus was caused by the vaccinations people got back before, like it was some kind of government conspiracy.”

  “I’ll try to give a simple explanation…”

  Serena laughed. “Your explanations are never simple.” The others laughed. Senator VanAllen joined in as well, and when she laughed, the two butt-munchers laughed.

  “The kids know you pretty well,” she remarked in a snide tone. She was making a dig, but I was not going to let her get to me—at least, not in front of these kids. I responded with a deprecating smile.

  “You make a good point, Serena,” I replied good-naturedly. “Alright, I will do my best to make it simple and easy to follow.

  “It all starts at birth. With rare exceptions, all babies are born with a basic, innate immune system. And, almost from the moment of birth, we become exposed to microbes and microorganisms.”

  “What’s the difference?” Isidro asked.

  “They are mostly the same, but a microbe can be a dead virus. If you’ve been paying attention in your biology class, you know anything that is dead cannot be called an organism. So, when you are exposed to either a microorganism or a microbe, they may infect you, or they may trigger an immune response in your body. Either way, it then becomes an antigen. The definition of an antigen is a foreign substance that triggers an immune response from what?”

  I waited to see if anyone knew the answer. Janea raised her hand.

  “The white blood cells?” she said.

  “Yes, exactly. Think of white blood cells as soldiers with specialized functions
. One of those soldiers is known as a T-cell, or lymphocyte. It plays a major role in developing immunities.

  “If I were to explain the function of each white blood cell, it’ll get complicated and we’ll be here the rest of the day, so, I’m going to stick with T-cells. Remember, the antigen, which can best be described as molecules on the outer surface of cells, comes from the microorganisms that the human body has been exposed to for the first time. It’s now in the body, the white blood cells have encountered it, and the T-cell is presented with the antigen. They then begin doing what is called clonally dividing, and in doing this, they send a signal to the other T-cells to begin dividing in order to ameliorate, or improve the presence of the particular pathogen, or, in simplistic terms, produce an antibody.”

  “That’s what causes the immunity, right?” Janea asked.

  “Yes, in a matter of speaking. Once the antibody is created, the T-cells develop a memory which is the basis for the immunity. Every time the same microorganism, or pathogen, is reintroduced into the body, there are T-cells programmed to fight it. Am I making sense so far?”

  I paused a moment, waiting for any possible questions. There were none, which probably meant all I had done was confuse the hell out of them. I continued anyway.

  “Alright, referring back to children, you should now see why children get sick with more frequency than adults. It’s because their bodies are still developing memory T-cells against pathogens. This is where vaccines come into play. When you are injected with a vaccine, you are being injected with an antigen, not a live pathogen, so your T-cells can develop a memory against it. During our lifetime, we are exposed to billions of microbes which can turn to antigens. Sometimes we get sick, other times our body is able to manufacture an immunity.”

  “But the zed virus is different,” Serena interjected.

  “Yes, it is. The zed virus is a highly contagious pathogen that is resistant to most human’s T-cell programming. Somehow, I developed an immunity.”

  “Your sister is immune too, right?” she said.