The Z-Strain Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Morris, SJ

  “This is a joke, and you’re just making fun of me because I don’t want to go on your stupid camping trip to the cabin, isn’t it?” Allycia questioned with attitude.

  I looked at her with the most serious face I could muster, since all I wanted to do was hold them.

  “No, sweetie. I wish it was a joke, but I always feared something like this would happen. I never thought it would be in our lifetimes, and I’m sorry it is. Now that it is, or it might be, we have to do something to ensure we’re all safe.”

  “Like what? Batten down the hatches and never talk to anyone again? Should we do what they did in that movie and make our way to the mall and hang out until the shit hits the fan and lock ourselves in?” Lance barked out.

  Lance seemed to be angry at what I was telling them. Which was understandable, though, considering when he woke up this morning, he was under the impression that we were just going camping. Now, I was telling him there was a real possibility that a virus might be in the process of taking down the entire human race. It’s a lot to take in for a teenager, whose biggest worry until now was if his mom was going to find the porno stashed under his mattress.

  “No, Lance, we’re not going to lock down the house or go to a mall. We’re going to the cabin, as planned like nothing is wrong. We don’t want to tell anyone what we know, not even your closest friends. If this gets contained and doesn’t make it to the states, then we can’t be the ones who started a mass panic, or they’ll put you guys in a loony bin and me in a military prison. Tell no one!”

  “Mom, you can see how we’d be a little hesitant to follow along with this and not be able to tell anyone, right?” Lance said with a little less panic in his voice.

  “Yes, I understand how this seems. If I hadn’t been in that lab and saw what the virus was capable of, I wouldn’t believe it either. I assure you that this is quite possible, and due to the tone of Troy’s voice, this is probably happening soon. The small amount of time I spent with Troy made me understand he knew what he was doing, and he was incredibly intelligent. I’m willing to go out on a limb on this one, guys, and you’re coming with me, like it or not.”

  “Okay, Mom, we’re with you on this. So, what do we do?” Tyler made the quick turnaround from what the hell to I’m on board, but this was no time to over-analyze my kids’ behavior.

  “Well, first, we should plan for long term, just in case. If this happens in a worst-case scenario, then we’re not going to have access to everyday things needed to keep ourselves fed, hydrated, and clothed. We need to take what we know we can use to survive, not stuff that’s going to make things easy and be used up quickly.”

  Allycia seemed to have something click in her head and spoke up, “So, I should take my sewing machine and all my extra needles with thread instead of a crapload of clothes?”

  “Yes, exactly. Well, as long as it’s the foot pedal one I got you a long time ago when you wanted to be a fashion designer. If it runs on electricity, I wouldn’t bring it. We have the solar panels at the cabin, but I don’t know how much power they can put out, so I wouldn’t count on them for vital things.”

  “All right, Mom, what else?” Allycia asked.

  The kids seemed to be magically on board. Either that or they thought I was going crazy and wanted to appease me so they could get me to the madhouse. Either way, we had a lot of preparations to make.

  “All right, guys, since we’re planning long-term, grab all of the toilet paper from the pantry and pack it in the truck. Get all of the non-perishable food items in the truck, all the medicine we have in the bathrooms, and all the batteries we have. Get your helmets from the garage... your quad helmets, not your bicycle helmets.”

  “Helmets, why helmets?” Inquired Lance.

  “Well, if these infected people are as violent as Troy said they are, then I have an idea. We’re all going to need full-face helmets, leather motorcycle jackets, pants, and snake boots.”

  “Snake boots, Mom?”

  “Yes, snake boots. All of these things are built specifically to protect from road rash and bites, stuff that breaks the skin. Bites, scratches, and exchanges of bodily fluids transfer the virus from the infected. If we’re covered from head to toe, then we will limit the possibility of getting infected. Short of walking around in biohazard suits, it’s the best I can come up with. Even if we get into a bind and get bitten, hopefully, the leather and Kevlar will hold up, and nothing will break the skin.”

  “Nice idea, Mom,” Lance smiled.

  “Shut up, Lance, you just want to dress up like a biker! None of your friends are going to see you, and no one is going to tell you how cool you look because you can’t look cool. Like ever!” Allycia stuck her tongue out at Lance after yelling at him. It seemed like everything I’d said didn’t even phase them. It was just like they had a new thing to do. I guess I can thank the desensitization of movies, TV, and comics for that. Ah well, I’ll take what I can get, I guess.

  At least they weren’t horrified. They were willing to cooperate, and so, I could work with that.

  “All right, guys, once the truck is packed up with all the essentials, on top of all the camping gear, we’re heading to the Army-Navy store for a few things, then the motorcycle dealership for biker gear.”

  “I think we should get at least two motorcycles, Mom. They’re good on gas and help make a quick getaway if needed,” Lance said with a huge shit-eating grin on his face.

  “Yeah, and they’re loud too,” I countered, “Plus I don’t know how to drive one, and neither do any of you, so let’s not go overboard and kill ourselves on motorcycles before anything even happens.”

  “It’s just a thought,” he mumbled, knowing he was defeated.

  Chapter 3

  After we packed everything from the house, there wasn’t a lot of room left in the truck, so we had to get the pod to put on the roof of the Land Rover.

  I started to get worried about the amount of time it was taking us to get out of the house. It’s weird when you don’t have an exact timetable, and something terrible is going to happen, how on edge it makes you. You feel like every second is your last before everything turns to shit. I was a little crazed, but the kids were handling it beautifully, for now. The dog was even relaxed. She was lying in the passenger seat of the Rover, sleeping. With all the coming and going, in and out of the truck, the doors were open, and I guess she just figured she’d sleep warming herself in the sun.

  When we were finally on the road to the Army-Navy store, my head started to clear momentarily. At least we were moving.

  We pulled up and parked. We all kind of looked around at the people coming and going, doing their regular Friday errands. It was spring break, so it was busier in the shopping complex than it usually was early on a Friday afternoon, and this worried me. I found myself looking at each person that walked past to see if they were sweating or looked sick at all. I realized I could be sitting here for a while if I was going to look at every single person. So, I unlocked the car to get out.

  Lance barked out, “Wait, Mom!”

  I almost jumped out of my skin, “What?”

  “Should we be on the lookout for anything in particular?”

  “Oh, yeah, that would help, right? Sorry guys, I’m a little off, trying to think of everything that we need to do or get. So, here it is. First of all, please be mindful of everyone around you. Don’t get too focused on what you’re getting. Always keep an eye out for someone that doesn’t look well, especially if they’re sweating profusely, looking faint or coughing a lot. The main symptom I saw in the troops was an extremely high fever. If you see anyone fitting the bill, I want you to whistle really loud, one time. If we hear a whistle, everyone meet by the front doors so we can assess what we should do next. To get everything we need quickly, we need to split up, and each of us should take a cart, but you need to know that from here on out, we stick together. Always stay within listening range of one another. Remember, we still don’t know one hundred percen
t what we’re dealing with, so we need to be prepared for anything. Like I said, this thing could already be in the states. Or it could be weeks before we see anything. It could also be contained before it even gets here.”

  “Mom, I meant what should we be looking for in the store... but that’s helpful information too. Now that I’m crapping my pants, what do you want us to buy?” Tyler questioned sheepishly.

  “I’m sorry, honey. I don’t want to frighten you, but I do want you to be able to know what to look out for so that you can get away fast and stay safe. I’m leaving the car key under the front driver-side wheel well, so if something happens, we can all make it to the truck, and whoever gets here first can open it and wait for the others. Got it?”

  They all replied in unison, “Got it.”

  “We need water filters, energy bars, camping lights, a crank radio, and two-way radios. You know, stuff that’s going to be important to help us if we have no electricity or find ourselves out in the elements for an extended period of time. Oh, and flints, or fire starters, waterproof matches, and as many batteries as possible. I’ll let you all use your best judgment on what we should be getting. I want this to be quick, so all of us grab a cart and let’s go find the snake boots. Once we’ve got them, go fill your carts for about fifteen minutes, and we’ll meet back at the registers. For the boots, I want you guys to get the size that fits you now and at least a size bigger since your feet are still growing. Think about that also, if you see any clothing items that you think you may need for the winter if this lasts that long. Money is not an issue. Just get whatever you think will be helpful, and we can sort it all out when we get to the cabin. Please keep in mind that the truck is almost full as it is. Sound good?” I got a unanimous ‘yes’ from the kids, and we entered the store.

  I wondered how funny we looked to the people around us. A family of four, each with a cart, getting sized up for snake boots, each buying extra, and then continuing to fill their carts with survival gear. I was prepared to have to answer a few questions when we got to the checkout counter, but the pimple-faced teenager seemed to be so interested in texting on his phone that he didn’t realize all the stuff he was scanning.

  When we were finished, we had done a lot of damage. Over $1,700.00 worth.

  The snake boots were a hundred dollars apiece, and we bought ten pairs of them.

  I knew Justin was meeting us at the cabin, and I assumed that if my husband had anything to say about it, his contingency plan for this whole thing, it would have involved Troy talking to Justin also. I knew he would want Justin to get his two small kids, Jessica, who was six and David, who was almost eight, to the cabin too. I just hoped it wasn’t too big of a fight with his ex-wife, Claudia, to have him take the kids since it was her one weekend a month to take them.

  I knew for a fact that Justin wouldn’t be telling Claudia, or trying to get her to go to the cabin with him. They had a massive falling out, and she’s pretty much made his life a living hell since he had a restraining order filed against her the same day he presented her with divorce papers. It was a messy separation, to say the least.

  With the shopping done here and the truck almost filled to capacity, we were off to the motorcycle store to get fitted for our, well, zombie prevention suits. This made me giggle a little to myself. The kids looked at me like I lost it, and I knew I had to explain myself, so I didn’t scare them any more than I already had.

  “I was just thinking about where we’re going next.”

  Allycia shook her head at me, “What do you mean? We’re going to a motorcycle store. I don’t get what’s so funny.”

  “Well, it’s not really the store, it’s what we’re getting,” I replied.

  Allycia looked at me sideways, “Riding jackets and leather pants? I still don’t find the humor in this unless you think we’re going to buy ass-less chaps on accident. That wouldn’t be funny, that would be gross.”

  “No, not ass-less chaps, Allycia! The fact that we’re going to buy zombie prevention suits. I woke up this morning, and there were no such things as zombies, except for in the movies. Now, they’re real, and we are going to get suited up, so we don’t turn into them. I just found the thought of getting zombie prevention suits... well, funny.”

  “Well, sure, I guess it is kind of funny. Or at least it will be if we spend all this money on all this crap and nothing happens! One day, we’ll look back and say, remember when we had that great camping trip during what we thought was going to be the zombie apocalypse and Mom went nuts? Real funny, Mom,” Allycia said sarcastically.

  “Let’s just get going, better safe than sorry, right?” I smiled.

  The rest of the drive to the motorcycle store was in silence. I guess Allycia’s last comment sobered me up a little.

  We parked in the lot as close to the doors as possible, so I could try and get a good look at what was going on inside. After a couple of minutes of watching, I concluded it was business as usual. So, I turned to the kids to explain what was expected of them this time around.

  “Okay, so we’re all going in to get at least two pairs of leather pants, each. Like with the boots, I want you to get a pair that fits comfortably and another that’s at least a size bigger so you can grow into them. As far as the jackets, I think we should do the same thing. I’ll get ones for Justin and the kids as well. Remember, when looking for the jackets you should try to find ones that cover your neck as much as possible. I don’t want any of us to have any exposed skin when we’re fully dressed. If you don’t think the helmet you have already fits correctly, then get another one. Same thing as before, money is no object, so if you think it’ll keep you safe, get it... except for a motorcycle,” I said just as Lance was about to open his mouth.

  My comment made him rethink saying whatever it was he was initially planning to voice. I was really turning out to be the bad guy today. No more friends, no more going out without being wrapped from head to toe in leather and no motorcycles.

  Just call me the dream crusher.

  “All right, guys, same deal as before with the car key, and we stay within hearing distance of one another. Allycia, you’re with me. We’ll go to the women’s section and boys, you go together to the men’s. We’ll meet you there in fifteen minutes, so I can get stuff for Justin and David. Whistle if anything happens.”

  Now, I was getting funny looks from the kids. It was as if the more they thought about this, the less likely it seemed that anything would be happening.

  I certainly hoped they were right.

  We entered the store, Allycia and I went right to the woman’s department, and the boys went left to the men’s. I was done shopping quickly and saw that Allycia was having a hard time. Apparently, leather pants were not a part of her fashion palette. I went over to help her speed things along.

  “What size pants do you wear now, honey? I can help you find them.”

  “I can find my own pants, Mom. I just don’t know what color I want.”

  I shook my head, “Really, Allycia? Color? We’re in a massive hurry. You know how bad this could get, but you’re worried about color? Just get black. It goes with everything!”

  “No, Mom. I don’t know how bad this could get. I don’t even know if what you told us is real, so excuse me for being a little picky about clothes that I may never even have to wear!”

  “Never have to wear? As soon as we’re done here, we are all going home and suiting up right away. I don’t want us open to the possibility of being caught unprepared. You mean too much to me to have that happen.” I started to break down, and tears welled in my eyes. Allycia saw I had started crying and it softened her demeanor a little.

  “Okay, Mom, if you think this Troy guy is right, then whatever you say. Black does go with everything, and it makes me look skinnier too,” she said with a small smile as she grabbed two pairs of black leather pants.

  A whistle sounded over from where the boys were, and I grabbed Allycia and started running in their direction. We
caught up with the boys by the men’s dressing rooms, and they were as white as ghosts.

  I looked around for danger but didn’t see any. “What’s going on? Why the whistle?”

  “The dude in the changing room at the end doesn’t sound like he’s doing so hot. We didn’t see him, but he’s making some pretty weird noises, so we thought we should whistle.”

  “Good job, boys. Stand back and let me take a peek. I’ll see if he’s okay.” I walked to the end of the changing rooms and heard heavy breathing coming from behind the heavy wooden door. I didn’t want to, but I knocked.

  “Excuse me, is everything okay in there?”

  The noises went silent for a moment, and then the door handle started to jiggle. I held my breath and looked for anything around me I could use as a weapon. Finding nothing but hangers, I grabbed one and positioned it to defend myself. The door opened a little, and I almost swung at it.

  “We’re sorry. We didn’t know we were being so loud, we’re coming right out,” giggled a small, female voice from behind the door.

  I dropped the hanger before I could make a fool out of myself as a young man covered in tattoos and a young girl, half-dressed, came out, fixing their hair and clothes. My mouth dropped as they walked past me.

  “Dude, I’m sorry. Things just get crazy sometimes when I need help with my zipper,” the boy laughed as he dragged his girlfriend past my kids and me.

  I didn’t know whether to laugh at what just happened or to yell at these kids who thought the dressing room was their own personal hotel room. I just let it go and walked back to my kids, who began to snicker at each other over what just happened.

  “Mom was going to hanger them!” Tyler said.

  Lance laughed, “Now that would have been something to see!”

  Allycia stamped her feet, “At least she was prepared to protect us.”

  I smiled at her as she caught up to me, “Thanks, sweetie.”

  “No problem, Mom. I’m sorry about before. I just don’t know how to take what’s going on. I’m scared, and I want to tell my friends, but I know if you are right, it would just make things worse. I just can’t seem to understand why Dad didn’t tell you about Troy, or the other stuff he was doing.”