by Dave Lund
Groom Lake, NV
“Bill, wake up!”
Bill sat up on the cot, blinked, and looked at the airman.
“Bill, it’s Cliff. He’s made contact, it’s spotty but it’s up right now.”
“OK, would you get Jake for me, and the major? I’ll take the radio.”
Bill spoke with Cliff and asked him to stand by for Wright and Jake. Ten minutes later, both of them entered the room and Wright spoke into the radio mic. “OK Lazarus 1, I guess our rescue team made it to your location since you’re making contact. What’s your situation, over.”
“Part of the team, Chivo and Bexar made it. The others were KIA en route. Is Jake in the room, over?”
“Yes, we have a full house, over.”
“There were no survivors. The cult killed all of them. We neutralized the cult, and Wright, you have command. We are returning to the SSC per my mission protocols, over.”
“Acknowledged Lazarus 1, safe journey, out.”
Jake hung his head in his hands. His people, his wife, they were all dead. Bill gave him a hug.
Then Jake leaped to his feet. “Holy shit, Jessie! Bexar! Wright, get Bexar on the radio!” Bill nearly fell over, startled by Jake’s outburst.
“Lazarus 1, Lazarus 1, respond.”
Cortez, CO
“Well, that’s the end there, I wouldn’t want to be Jake right now.”
“Who’s Jake?”
“He’s the leader of the group that was here. His wife was one of those left behind in the original rescue mission, one of the ones killed by the cult.”
Bexar ignored the conversation as he reached to unhook the truck’s battery from the radio so they could drive to the safe house and get ready to leave, stopping when the speaker barked to life again.
Cliff walked back to the desk and keyed the mic. “Go ahead Groom Lake, over.”
“Is Bexar with you? Put him on the radio, over.”
Looking annoyed, Cliff said, “Stand by, over.” Then he turned to Bexar. “They want to talk to you.” He handed the mic to Bexar, who looked perplexed.
“This is Bexar.”
“Bexar, Jessie is here, she made it from Texas, she is safe … she’s pregnant!”
Bexar dropped the mic and sat on the floor, the room spinning around him.
“He copies, Groom Lake, anything else, over?”
“No, Groom Lake out.”
Bexar sat on the floor while Cliff unhooked the car battery.
“I have to … we have to go there.” Bexar looked up at him.
“No, my mission, my rules, we go to the SSC.”
Bexar stood. “Fuck you, fuck your mission, fuck you for telling us to go to Groom Lake in the first place.” He punched Cliff in the face.
Cliff stumbled back and swept Bexar’s leg out from under him, then drew his pistol and pointed it at Bexar, who was lying on his back, facing the pistol.
“This mission, this country, this is more important than you! You hit me again and you won’t live to see my pistol, you will just die.”
“No, Cliff.”
Cliff looked up at Chivo, who held his rifle pointing toward his former trainer officer and his friend.
“Not this time, Cliff, you’re wrong.”
“So this is how it’s going to be?”
“I ride with Bexar.”
Groom Lake, NV
Jake, after the outburst of good news for Bexar, sat on Bill’s cot, his old friend sitting beside him. Wright looked at the clock on the wall. 0400, guess I’m up for the day now.
The airman at the console cycled through the HF frequency ranges again, now that the waiting game for Cliff was over. That guy had always creeped him out. It was just as well he was going to Texas instead of coming back. This was their facility now.
Coronado, CA
Aymond smiled at Ski and the corporals. “Gentlemen, if I had the authority all three of you would be promoted on the spot.”
“Thanks Chief, I expect it to reflect in my pay stub at the end of the month,” someone catcalled from the group.
“Now we have to do something about it. If we can’t make contact with anyone we have to assume we’re on our own and we have to fight the Chinese … those bastards attacked us, now they’ve invaded. We will go on to the end. We will fight them on the seas and harbor, we will defend our land whatever the cost may be. We will fight in the streets, in the city and on the beach … we will not surrender, we will carry on the struggle until the last of us is dead or we have beaten the enemy from our land.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
My name is Dave Lund. I hail from Texas and am a former Texas “motor-cop.” My family and photography round out my usual day-to-day passions, but post-apocalyptic zombie stories really fire me up. Before my previous stint as a motor-cop, I was a full-time skydiving instructor and competitor (in Canopy Piloting, aka swooping) with over 3,000 skydives. I am no longer an active skydiver so I can focus on my family, photography, and writing.
The characters in the Winchester series comprise some personality composites of people I have known or met in my life, but no character is based on a single real person or even two people combined. They are a complete work of fiction and do not represent any actual people, living or dead. Yes, that includes Bexar! Many of the themes, objects, weapons, tactics, and locations in the Winchester Undead series are pulled from my past and experiences, as many writers are apt to do, including my love of Big Bend National Park in Texas; although I have to admit there is no secret cache site in the small Texas town of Maypearl. At least none that I had any hand in creating. Although the secret base from the SSC is probably true ...
Acknowledgments
The people who make a single novel happen are numerous; it takes dedication and support from many facets of an author’s life. For a second and more books in a series the support and dedication is tremendous. First and foremost my wife, Morgan. Without her love, support, and faith in me I could have never even started on this journey, much less made it to this point. Her willingness to not only say “go” but to be my first line beta reader, biggest fan, and my cheerleader when I needed it most wasn’t exactly stated in our wedding vows, but she is my rock and my best friend and without her help the first step of this journey would never have been taken. My father lived long enough to know that I was writing a story and that I planned on publishing it, but he didn’t live long enough to see what has happened since. I know he would be proud even if a single book more failed to sell. From the beginning he taught me that I can accomplish anything I choose, but expect to work very hard to make the accomplishment happen. He was right and is right today.
Winlock Press, the imprint of Permuted Press, plucked my story of three prepper families out of Texas from the indie-author world and gave me the push to get the whole Winchester Undead rolling like I never had thought it could. None of that would have happened without all of my friends, new friends, and readers getting behind a story with excitement, telling their friends about Winchester: Over and the start of a new zombie apocalypse prepper series.
Numerous friends have reached out and helped me chase down details and given advice. Thank all of you: Mark, Jerry, Jason, the other Mark, Freeflier, Kristi, DFA 1 and DFA 2 … the list continues. Thank you, all of you.
Through the course of two releases in the series I have grown to know my characters, watching their journey unfold before me. Some of the twists and turns surprised me, but the characters told me it would be OK as long as I held on for the ride. So far they have been right. I hope as the series continues that the characters become as cherished to you as they have become to me. The foundation began twenty years ago, the project continues to be built, expanding through age and life’s journeys … DFA.
Keep your go-bags packed and be ready!
~Dave
Website: http://www.winchesterundead.com
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The Author Dave Lund Winchester Undead Newsletter, the place for unique content, special contests and tales of adventure can be found here: http://winchesterundead.com/main/winchester-undead-newsletter/
Other Winlock Books You’ll Love
Winlock Press has a stunning range of post-apocalyptic adventures.
Be sure to click on the links below and enters the worlds of:
J. Rudolph’s The Reanimates: The Complex,
first in The Reanimates series!
It took no time at all for Shelton’s Disease to spread from an ugly rumor on the internet to the end of the world as Cali Anglin, RN, knew it. Now the half-abandoned gated community that she has taken for granted is all that stands between her family and the endless, ravenous hordes of reanimates. And with the government gone, electricity extinguished, and the food supply dwindling, she has to face questions she’s never asked herself before: just how far would she go to save her family, her friends, her rapidly collapsing community? Would she kill for them? Would she die for them? She’s about to find out.
In the terrifying tradition of George Romero’s Day of the Dead and Mira Grant’s Feed, Julie Rudolph gives us a fresh and frightening look at the zombie apocalypse from the ground level, when ordinary people like you and me are forced to face extraordinary evil… and survive.
Tristan Vick’s Bitten: Resurrection,
first in the Bitten apocalypse series!
Rachael Ramirez has always been tough. Raising a son on her own in Newcastle City has made her that way. Alyssa Briggs, a Newcastle veterinarian, has always shown a gentler side. But when the world went crazy, and she literally ran into Rachael Ramirez as the risen dead overran them, everything changed. Now these bright and beautiful women will build a team of strange, courageous survivors, including a schizophrenic nymphomaniac, a narcissistic playboy, and a ragtag group of hardened soldiers: just what they need to stay alive in this weird new world. And none of them know that Rachael holds a shocking secret to the Resurrection Virus that may be the key to humanity’s salvation… or prove to be its worst curse.
Strong women and smart men in hand-to-hand combat with the walking dead, deep in the Big City. What more could you want in an apocalypse?
Table of Contents
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Acknowledgments
Other Winlock Books You’ll Love