“Dexter!” Eddy shouted as he tried running towards the back of the building, but Marcus tackled him to the ground.
“No Eddy. We have to go! It’s suicide!”
“Let me go!”
“Eddy, we have to go!”
Eddy cried as he stood up and stared at the building. Dexter shot Jason’s men while searching for him. Around every corner was one of his men. He shot them with frustration, then it hit him. Why is he doing this alone? What did he just do?
Jason came around the corner and shot Dexter in the leg. Dexter screams in pain, but everyone stopped in front of him and held their guns up at him. Jason laughs and walked up to Dexter slowly.
“Who are you?”
“Your murderer.”
“Okay. Sure. Get him up. I need to show these people something.”
The men grabbed Dexter and dragged him across the floor. He tried to fight back, but they kicked his wound and picked him up.
Zombies began flooding the community. Jason’s men began fighting back, but there were too many of them. Jess tried leading the group another route, but zombies came from every direction.
“We have to fight our way through. Use guns, but have you’re knives close. We won’t have time to reload.”
“Jess!” a voice echoed in the air.
Eddy looked at the building and saw Jason and his men with Dexter. Eddy screamed Dexter’s name and Jason looked at them.
“Let him go now!” Eddy screamed.
“You need to learn! Give up and die or suffer slowly!”
Eddy noticed a rope around Dexter’s neck and tried climbing the gate. Jess fired at Jason, but one of his men jumped in the way and took the bullet for him. Jason frowned and kicked Dexter off the building. Eddy watched as his brother fell off the building and had his neck snapped. The body twitched and Eddy jumped down before his men shot at them. Jess dropped her gun and fell to the ground crying. Fear and hope was replaced with guilt. Faith picked her up and handed her gun back. Eddy frowned and pulled out Sam’s machete.
“Eddy?” Jess asked.
Eddy ran towards the zombies and began killing them. A runner came behind him, but he kicked its knee in and stabbed it to the ground. He then grabbed his gun and shot other zombies around him.
“Eddy!” Jess yelled.
Eddy couldn’t hear anything. Blood spattered around him and it felt as if he could only see red. He wasn’t thinking about anything. He just reacted. Jess and the others ran behind him and tried to get him to calm down, but Eddy continued to get deeper into the horde.
“Shit!” Jess yelled.
Eddy grabbed a zombie’s arm and tossed it against others. He swung the machete into one of its heads and slid it out while shooting the others around him.
“Eddy, stop!” Jess yells.
Suddenly, Eddy stopped and noticed what he was doing. He looked back at Jess as she grabbed him and ran back towards the group. He hugged her and cried on her shoulder.
“We have to go.”
Jess and the others continued to fight their way through the herd as Jason watched them escape.
“Sir, what do we do now? We lost a lot of our men,” one man asked.
Jason looked at the zombies consuming most of his men and did nothing, but smile.
“What’s so funny?” Drew asked.
“I put my faith in these men and they die. So much for toughness.”
“Sir, but what are we going to-”
Aggravated, Jason grabbed the man and threw him off the roof. He fell on zombies and lived, but not for long. The zombies had torn his torso open and consumed his flesh.
“Anyone else wants to question me?!”
A crawler approached him from the front of the building, but Jason snapped his fingers and his men gave him a shotgun. Jason walked up to the edge and shot the zombie in the head multiple times without flinching.
“Kill the rest of them. We have work to do.” Jason said as he walked away.
Maria opened the gate and saw the group running inside. They all were panting as they closed the gate, but Eddy walked away to his house.
“What happened?” Maria asked.
“He’s still alive. A herd disrupted the whole plan.”
“A herd killed most of my people?”
“No, Jason did. Apparently, he had a building rigged with explosives, but it’s like he already knew where we would be. He blew the damn thing up with an RPG.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t fire multiple shots at us. Just one. Who does that? If he wanted to kill us, he possibly could have. So, why didn’t he?”
“You don’t think…?”
“There’s a mole inside the community.” Faith said.
Jess looked away at Eddy’s house, “Hey, I’ll be right back.”
Jess walked up to his house and heard a lot of commotion inside. She slowly opened the door and noticed the house was trashed. She gasped and looked around for Eddy. The television was busted, the tables were flipped, paper scattered everywhere, and the walls were spotted with holes. Traces of blood smeared on the side wall upstairs and more noises came from one of the rooms.
“Eddy?”
Eddy was crying upstairs, but suddenly, the noise stopped. The house had gotten so quiet, it was scary. Jess didn’t know what happened, but she wanted to help Eddy. She knows what could happen if a person loses someone close to them. She approached the room and opened it to Eddy sitting in the middle of the room, but trash surrounded him and he held his head down.
“Eddy, let me help you.”
“I lost my brother Jess,” he cried, “I don’t…know what to do anymore. He was all I had. When my mother treated us like shit, he was there! He had my back through it all! And I had the audacity to say Sam was like a brother to me. I wish I didn’t say that. Maybe he wouldn’t have been so determined to kill him. What if he did it to prove himself to me? I can’t think about…”
Jess hugged him and cried along with him. Eddy continued crying and gripped her shirt.
“I’m sorry Eddy.”
Faith went inside the house and saw Lisa sitting on the couch with Steven. Steven jumps up and clears his throat.
“Hey Faith.”
“Hey Steven.”
Lisa stands up and smiles, “So, I’ll see you later?”
“Yeah.”
Steven walks past Faith and exits the house. As soon as the door closes, Faith smiles and chuckles as Lisa scoffs and walks away.
“Faith, it’s not what you think it is.”
“It is! You like him!”
“I do not!”
“Spare me the excuses,” Faith stops smiling for a second, “but seriously, we…we didn’t kill him.”
“Why? What happened?”
“A herd came and he knew we were going to attack.”
“How?”
“There’s a mole inside the community.”
“What is that?”
“A traitor.”
“Who could betray us?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I won’t say anything.”
“That’s my girl.”
Jess and Eddy walked out of the house and saw people surrounding Maria’s house.
“What’s going on?” Jess asked.
“Look! We can still win this war! It’s not over!”
“We didn’t ask for this bullshit!”
As Jess and Eddy passed them to reach Maria, a man scoffs and frowns.
“It’s all their fault!”
“We didn’t ask for this shit either! We’ve already talked about this! Jason is a horrible man! He will not stop until we’re all dead.”
“Then why is he so determined to kill you?”
“We destroyed his only plan to get away from this.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“We were on the ship that was lost five years ago. We were the first ones to encounter the virus. There was an island that they w
ere going to use for their safe spot. A place that didn’t touch any of the other lands. We crashed on their island and fought those things while trying to find a way off the damn island. We’ve been dealing with these from the start. So, don’t you dare sit there and get mad at me for trying to survive.”
“I don’t care about your snobby back story! The point is, you brought him here!”
“And we took out many of his men already. The question now is what are we going to do about it? A lot of brave people stepped up and fought this first battle with us and most of them lost their life.”
“For what?”
“A better start!” Eddy interrupted, “Look, if you don’t want to fight, you can join the rest of the women and children at another safe spot. However, if you want to defend your home, you will stand with us and finish off the rest of Jason’s men.”
“What are you talking about?” Maria asked.
“We’re taking you to a safe location. We threw the first punch, but luckily a herd is keeping them busy. It’s only a matter of time before they strike back. When they do, we don’t want all of you here.”
“Okay, but I’m staying.”
Jess looks at everyone, “Make your decision now. Stay or go?”
The survivors gave their speech a good thought. A couple of people stepped up to fight with them. The man stared at all the brave ones willing to die defending their community and he figured he could do the same. He walked up to Jess and Maria and nodded his head. Jess smiled. Almost everyone stepped up to fight and with this may people, the war was sure to be theirs.
“Well, we have to prepare for them to attack us now. It’s going to happen and we need to be ready.” Jess declared.
“We have to find the mole.” Eddy angrily whispered to Jess.
“We’ll find whoever it is, but I have a plan.”
“We don’t have time Eddy. We can’t let everyone know, especially the mole.”
Eddy’s hands were shaking and the voices in his head were convincing him to burst out yelling and point his gun at the people to find the mole. Jess grabbed his hand and he automatically stopped shaking. He felt her heartbeat through her hand. He could tell she was just as angry and emotional as him. He looked into her eyes and walked away. Jess sighed and continued to talk to the survivors.
Meanwhile, the zombies were still surrounding Jason’s community and he was furious. He walked down the stairs and listened to his men struggle to contain them. He walked inside of a room and slammed the door. Three of his men, including Drew, were sitting down figuring out what to do. They jumped up and stared at him.
“Sir?”
Jason angrily grabbed his shotgun and shot one of the men in the head and the other in the chest. Blood spattered everywhere and Drew dropped to the ground.
“Drew, you have one last time to disappoint me. Get out!”
Drew grabbed his gun from the table and left the room. Jason slammed his hands on the table and reached for his radio.
“Drew, get the mole. I’m thinking of something.”
IX
THE DARK PLACE
Jess, Maria, and Eddy sat in the living room while going over the plan. Jess and Maria were drinking water, but Eddy didn’t drink with them. He was leaned over with his arms resting on his legs while he listened to them.
“So, this is what we’re doing?” Maria asked.
“Yes, it could work, but we’ll have to make sure everything goes the way we need it.” Eddy explained.
“I know this is horrible timing, but-”
“I’m fine. I just don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay.”
“We have to hurry and do this today. It can’t wait.” Jess said.
Hank walked in and approached Maria, “Hey, you called for me.”
“Yes, we wanted to talk about the plan. Eddy’s going to need help.”
“It’s no problem.”
He walked past the table and sat next to Eddy on the couch.
“Water?”
“No, thank you. So, when are we doing this?”
“Now.” Eddy said.
“You sure you want to do this now?”
“I can’t sit around and grieve all day. Jason’s still alive.”
“Okay, well, I’ll get my gear and we can head out.”
“I’ll meet you at the front gate.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll bring Marcus with me. Jenny can stay and help Jess with anything she needs.”
“Thanks.” Maria said.
Hank gets up and walks out of the room while Eddy stands up and sighs.
“This is going to be over soon. I promise.” Jess said.
“I know.”
Eddy walked out of the room and Jess held her head down.
Eddy walked to the gate and saw Hank and Marcus waiting on him. Eddy carried Sam’s machete and a gun Dexter gave him as he approached them.
“Ready?” Hank asked.
“Let’s go.”
Maria drank her water in one gulp and jumped up.
“Come on Jess, we have work to do.”
“What’s that?”
“Making sure the children and the others are going to be somewhere safe.”
“They’re already there I thought?”
“Most of them.”
“Okay, but let me get some things first, okay?”
“Okay. Meet me by the medical house. We can start there.”
Jess walks out of the room and Maria sits on her bed and exhales loudly. She stares at the floor and pictured Eric’s body there. It was almost as if he was there. The blood was flowing and his dead eyes were wide open. Maria’s head began aching and she flinched in pain. As she rubbed her head, she heard a voice whispering in front of her. It was ghostly, yet calm. She didn’t want to look up. She kept her head down and fear shivered through her skin. The voice suddenly got deeper and her name was being repeated constantly. She put her hands over her ears, trying to ignore the voice, but it only got louder. Then it hit her, it was Eric’s voice. She looked up and Eric was standing over her. His body was disintegrated. His eyes were missing as blood traveled from the sockets and dirt covered his face. His decaying hands reached for her, but she screamed and fell to the ground.
“You killed me!”
Maria stayed on the ground with her ears covered and cried in fear. She whispered to herself that it wasn’t real, but the voice got louder and louder, but suddenly stopped. Maria looked up and found no one there. She stood up slowly and began crying more.
Jess walked into her house and went upstairs to get her gun and knife. While walking upstairs, she started to feel weak. Her legs began shaking and she couldn’t keep her balance. She fell against the wall, but managed to keep herself standing.
“Jess.” A voice from upstairs called to her.
Jess looked up and saw a shadow, tall and dark, standing at the top of the staircase. Breathing heavily, she fell on the stairs, but the shadow was still there. Jess was scared. She didn’t know what it was. She began crawling up the stairs, but no one was there. She couldn’t feel her legs, but she didn’t let that stop her. When she got upstairs, a person appeared in front of her. She looked up and gasped shockingly.
“Sam?”
“You let me die Jess.” He said. He looked normal, but blood poured from the stab wound he had gotten from Jason.
Jess cries, “I tried to save you.”
“No, you didn’t. It’s all your fault.”
“No…”
“It’s your fault!” Sam yelled as he kicked her down the stairs. Jess tumbled and hit her back on the edge of the stairs. Finally, she fell on the ground and cried in pain. Sam stood over her and kept speaking, but his voice had gotten distorted. Jess put her head down and cried, but when she looked back up, she was somewhere else. It was snow surrounding her and it was extremely cold. Jess was able to stand and she tried to get a sense of where she was. Suddenly, Sam came running from the woods in front of her and ran past her. S
he turned around and saw the community. Sam and another group of survivors were trying to get inside the walls, but no one answered. Jess knew she was in a memory, but it wasn’t hers. She saw Austin alongside Sam crying loudly while they tried to get the gate open.
Z Island Series (Book 2): War After Z Island Page 16