Faith shot Drew’s men and helped Maria into another house. She kicked the door open and laid her on the couch. Maria held her leg, but Faith ran into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of cloth for the both of them. She could hardly move her right arm, but she tried fighting the pain anyway.
“Here. Put this around your leg.
“Where are you going?”
“Kill the rest of them. It’s time they all die.”
Faith tied the cloth around her arm and tightened it hard. She grunted and walked outside while Maria held her gun in her hand.
Firearms were being used all around Jess. She couldn’t concentrate with all the noises going on, but she knew what was going on. She saw Drew struggling to get up as he got the knife out of his arm and jumped on top of Jess. He tried stabbing her in the eye, but Jess held his arm as he attempted to kill her.
“It’s all over now Jess. Just accept it. Everyone you love is dead. Be with them.”
“Not today.”
Jess moved her head and let the knife penetrate the dirt as she punched Drew off her. As he stood up, Jess struggled to get up, but Drew ran after her and cut her arm. She screamed and dodged his second swing. She then grabbed the knife out of his hand and stab him in the chest. Drew spit blood in Jess’s face and fell over. He coughed up blood and tried to crawl away. Jess exhaled with relief and limped above him. Drew continued to struggle before Jess kicked him over, staring into his dying eyes.
“You…bitch!” Drew moaned.
“I told you. We always win.”
Jess jumped on top of Drew and stabbed him in the stomach repeatedly. As Drew died, Jess began crying, but she didn’t stop. She continued to stab him as memories flashed through her head. From Julie to Sam, everyone she cared for, flashed in her head. All because of Jason.
“Jess!” Lisa screamed as she finally got Jess to stop.
Covered in blood, Jess looked up and saw the rest of Drew’s men coming. The group was larger than the first. They consisted of 25 men and Jess didn’t have enough people to fight them head on. She stood up and grabbed her knife. Lisa helped her walk as they approached what was left of her group. Steven was spotted helping those who were injured while Faith walked up to Jess and gave her a very tight hug. Their group was very little. They were a group of 12 and Jess knew their odds of winning was small.
“I’m willing to die if it means getting rid of them.” Jess said.
“Me too.”
Jess and the rest of her group hid behind the cars as they grabbed weapons and prepared for them to come. As they drew closer to the community, Jess cried silently as she and Faith grabbed hands. They looked into each other’s eyes hopefully, but they feared their lives were at an end. The men approached the back gate and started shooting at them. Jess and her group fired back. Immediately, she had lost a person. She watched him fall back with a bullet hole in his forehead, but she didn’t give up. They both fired back and forth, but their firepower was weak against them. Jess took cover behind the car as more people dropped in front of her. She closed her eyes and cried to the thought of being with Sam and her family again, but a zombie’s roar woke her up. She looked around to find out where the sound was coming from and saw a crawler on top of the gate and jumping into Drew’s men. Zombies came from the side of the community as Eddy, Hank, and Marcus came in front of the building shooting at the men.
“Run!” Eddy shouted.
Jess and the rest of the group shot back at the men one last time before the zombies began flooding the community and eating whatever moved. Drew’s men dropped down to a small variety instantly as they came, but Jess and the others were already leaving. As they strayed further from the community, Jess called for Maria.
“Maria, give me the detonator.”
Maria dug into her pocket and gave it to Jess. Jess took no time and pressed the button. The button controlled bombs that was set all around the community. Suddenly, everything exploded and people along with zombies were sent into the air on fire. Jess led the group away from the community to safety as everyone smiled with relief that it was all over. Maria looked back at all her hard work and survival years being engulfed by flames, but she knew it was for the right reasons. The community, with many other survivors, were gone. The war was over. Jess smiled and hugged Faith as Eddy laughed with excitement. Everyone was glad it was all over, but they also thought about the future.
“So, what do we do now?” Eddy asked.
“We rebuild.” Maria answered.
“But we can’t rebuild here.”
“I didn’t mean here.”
Jess fell to the ground in pain, but she was too weak to move. Eddy and Marcus helped Jess up as they all looked at her leg. It was bleeding heavily, so they all rushed her to Drake as quick as they could.
The next day, Jess was being stitched up by Drake and Faith was standing alongside her. Maria was lying in bed next to them while Eddy sat quietly outside the tent. The safe place was a guarded retail store with many supplies and tents around that was many miles away from the old community. Eddy was excited about being alive and killing the rest of Jason’s men, but he didn’t have Dexter with him to celebrate. Steven walked up to him and sat down.
“Are you alright?”
“I just wish Dexter was still alive, you know?”
“Same here with my family. We’ve all been through horrible things, but we always come back. That’s what I’ve noticed with this group. You always fight for freedom and survival. You don’t want to lose that. You will lose people, but that’s another reason to fight even harder.”
“Damn, how did you get so wise at your age.”
“Nowadays, age isn’t nothing but a number.”
Eddy chuckles, “Yeah, no doubt about that.”
“Just glad it’s over.”
“Yeah, well, that was only one problem among the biggest one of all.”
“The zombies.”
“They’re next. Come here, I had Drake to bring something from the community.”
Eddy led him inside of the store and walked over to the area where his radio was being shown. It was old, but by Eddy’s words, it was still useable.
“I’ve been trying to signal for other survivors for a while now. Can’t find nothing yet.”
“I don’t even know how to work this.” Steven smiled.
“Sam taught me. He said the same thing happened to him while he was on the island. They worked a radio and they found a signal that got them off. Hopefully we get something.”
“How did a radio get on the island?”
“Jason’s men.”
“Enough said.”
Eddy laughed, but the radio made loud noises. It was almost like someone was making a broadcast.
“Oh, my God. Did we find something?”
“Hold on!” Eddy said as he tried to get a clearer signal.
As they listened closely, they could hear someone talking on the other side. That’s when they noticed it was very good news:
Come…we…there is…
“Come on! Come on!”
Zombies…now…
“Almost there…and…got it!”
This is Dr. Ray from Houston. Come to North Carolina and find us at Saint’s Hospital. We’ve found the cure! We need help. I say again, we’ve found a cure for the virus, but we need help! Come to North Carolina! I will repeat this in 2 hours!
Eddy turned the radio off and smiled, “Oh, Sam! You’re looking out for me!”
“Did that just say…?”
“They have a cure for the virus! It’s all going to be over now!”
Eddy hugged Steven as they rushed to Jess and the others. Jess stood up and tried to walk perfectly with the stiches, but Eddy ran in front of her panting.
“Eddy? What’s wrong?”
“I have some incredibly great news!”
XI
EPILOGUE
Jess was walking alone with a backpack on and a t-shirt. Her hair was in a ponytail as she
walked up to Sam, Tina, David, and Austin’s grave. Rubble was smeared on top of them, but she moved everything out of the way and squatted in between them.
“Sam, there’s great news. The North Carolina scientists have made a cure for the virus. Eddy told me yesterday. I wish you were here to get this kind of news. This is our chance to start over. Me, Faith, Eddy, everyone. We’re heading out in a couple of hours to go there. It’s going to be a while, but you guys will be on my mind the whole journey there. I miss you so much. All of you!” Jess cries.
“Jess. It’s time to go.” Faith said.
Jess looked back at the graves and placed her hands on Sam and Austin’s grave. She cried lightly and stood up. Faith put her arms around Jess as they walked away with Eddy and the others as they set out for one last journey to stop the virus once and for all.
Weeks went by and the dirt around the graves had become solid dirt and the grass grew around it. Zombies had made themselves known around the area, but they looked at something ahead of the grave and screeched. A person stepped on the grave with boots on and held a knife in their hand as the zombies charged after the person. The two zombies were killed and the person wiped the knife on the zombie’s clothing. The person stood over the graves and stared at them for a long time.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This year, I want to thank all those who supported me through my crazy journey on writing this sequel. This series is very special to me and there isn’t enough space to write out all those who’ve supported me. So, just want to say thanks to all my friends and family for having the faith that I could write this book right away.
I hope the fans of my first book will enjoy this one. It was hard to write this one because of most of the death scenes in this book and the fact that I wanted to make it enjoyable, but I assure you, Survivors of Z Island: Retribution will be the biggest, goriest, most action-packed book of the trilogy.
See you in Summer 2020!!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terrence Osborne Jr is an upcoming book writer. Born in Houston, Texas, he’s always had a dream of pursuing a writing career on the side. He plans to graduate college with a Bachelor of Science in Forensics. Afterwards, he plans on focusing on his career while providing entertainment to the readers around the world. He would create mini stories and write poems, but finally decided to write an official novel. His debut novel, Escape from Z Island, is now published.
OTHER BOOKS BY
TERRENCE OSBORNE JR:
Z Island Series (Book 2): War After Z Island Page 19