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

by Morris, SJ

  “Nothing else in the dumpster of interest, unless you want to rejoin Miss Piggy over there with her arm,” Chris said as he slowly pulled the officer closer to where we were.

  As soon as he saw the female officer we were cleaning up, the man snapped out of whatever PTSD dream state he was in. He rushed over to us and started quietly talking to the woman, asking if she was okay.

  He called her Jasmine, so we had a name for one of our new friends. Tom looked up at him and cleared his throat, “Excuse me, Sir. Jasmine here seems to have a bit of a concussion, so we need to get her to our infirmary as soon as possible to clean her up and so she can rest. Will you come with us? We have a safe house all set up.”

  “Ugh, sure. The call to this location was the last radio transmission we had with headquarters and that was first thing this morning, around seven. We tried reaching the station before we went inside because it looked like we were going to need backup, but we never got any response.”

  “So, the last time you had communication over the radios was around seven this morning? Sounds like it’s almost full on outbreak everywhere if the power and radios are out up here already,” said Chris as he rubbed his big hand down his face.

  “Right after we tried to radio for backup, that one over there came at us, trying to bite,” he pointed at the large woman on the ground. “I tried to hold her off so Jazz could try again for backup when another one came out of the woods after her. I saw her run into the store, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold the woman off me for much longer. She was so strong and all she wanted to do was bite me. We heard of this happening in major cities, and we saw all the crap on the news, but until this morning, we hadn’t really seen it here in town.”

  Chris chimed in, “Well, as of yesterday morning, the Z-Strain took over a strip mall about thirty miles north of here. We have some of the survivors at our cabin, including some kids from a daycare.”

  “The Z-Strain? What? Oh, my goodness. This is terrible,” said the officer, now shaking his head in disbelief.

  “What happened when you got separated?” I asked, with the intention of keeping the officer from thinking too much about everything. I didn’t want to spend more time sitting here than we absolutely had to.

  “Well, I gave the lady one final push with what strength I had left, and she stumbled backward. I started to run for the store’s door, but the other fast one that went after Jazz was still there, trying to figure out how to get in. Luckily, he was too busy with the door to notice me. I ran to the side of the building and saw the dumpster lid open. I figured it would be as good a place as any to hide until, hopefully, backup showed. I jumped in and as I was closing the lid, the woman caught up with me. She reached in and grabbed a hold of my shirt really good. I ducked down as far as I could and fought with her but couldn’t get her to let me go. I pulled out my gun and took about six shots at her. I guess I only hit her in the shoulder because she thrashed a little and her arm came off as the lid closed. She beat on the can for what seemed like forever. I was waiting for her to die from blood loss, but she didn’t quit. After what I guess was about an hour, she stopped the pounding, but I could hear her still pacing and groaning in front of the dumpster. I only had four bullets left, and if her taking six to the shoulder and having her arm come off wasn’t going to stop her, I didn’t think my last four bullets would either. So, I just stayed quiet, well as quiet you can be while you’re throwing up everything you have in your stomach from the foul smell that her arm and the garbage was giving off.”

  “Well, you’re out now. You and your partner here made it. What’s your name, Sir?” Tom asked.

  “Lieutenant Barry Fangle, Sir, and who do I have the pleasure of thanking for saving my deputy and myself?”

  “I’m Thomas Buckeneye, and this here is Christopher Bryant. This lovely lady in black is Abbigail Norrington. Troy is back there in the car behind us. If you don’t want to drive your cruisers, we can have you drive with him, and you’ll meet everyone else once we get you all back to the cabin, Sir.”

  “Thank you, and no more sir. Please, just call me Barry.”

  “Sure thing, Barry, just one quick question. Did you get any of the blood from the woman’s arm in your mouth, eyes, or any open cuts you may have?” I had to chime in. I needed to make sure we weren’t bringing more infected back to the house. We already had one in the infirmary, and I didn’t want to add any more.

  “Oh no, ma’am. No bites and no cuts that I know of.”

  “Now, it’s your turn, no ma’am’s, please, just Abby. I don’t mean to be rude, but do you mind if I have a look at you to be sure? From what we know, getting infected fluids in your bloodstream transmits the infection. For your safety and ours, I want to be certain you haven’t been exposed.”

  “Absolutely, have a go. I’d like to be sure I’m not going to be one of those things too, so what do you need?”

  I reached forward and took off my glove. I felt his forehead, and he didn’t have a temperature. I checked his pulse and it was normal, so I lifted his shirt and turned him around a few times to check for rips in his clothing, and he was clear.

  “You look good, but Troy or I will need to check your temperature every few hours to be sure. If you start to feel hot and sweaty for no good reason, come and find us immediately, please.”

  “You’ve got it, Abby. If I start to turn into one of those... those things, ya’ll have my blessing to put a bullet in my brain, please. Is Jazz bit, did you look her over yet?”

  “She’s good, as far as I can tell out here. She only has the head wound, but we need to get her back to the cabin so we can look over her properly, too.”

  “Well, then what are we waiting for? Lead the way. I’ll drive my cruiser, and if one of you wants to drive the other, I’d certainly appreciate it. We’ve got supplies in the cars that might be helpful, and I can’t see just leaving them here for someone else to think there might be police around to help and they get hurt.”

  Tom volunteered Chris to drive the second cruiser since he wanted to stay with Jasmine.

  With that, Tom loaded Jasmine into Troy’s car. Barry and Chris started up the cruisers and pulled behind our little caravan. The now four cars pulled out of the gas station lot and headed for home.

  I was apprehensive about what we’d find back at the cabin. I hoped there was only the arrival of the few guests we invited the day before, the new people we found this morning resting, and the remainder of our families, just as we left them.

  If those four men that Chris and Troy talked about were there, I didn’t know what I would do. I don’t think I could play nice with them, knowing what they were like, but it didn’t seem that Chris or Tom would let them in. I prayed that Dan, Lance, and everyone else back at the house hadn’t already.

  Chapter 13

  I pulled up to the little box outside the chain-link fence and pushed the call button.

  “Hey, Mom! Is everyone okay?”

  “Tyler, it’s so good to hear your voice. Yes, everyone’s okay, and we have a few more people along with us. There will be three cars coming in behind me.”

  “More? If you keep going out and bringing in more people, we’re going to have to think about expanding!”

  “Why? Who else has arrived?” I asked seriously. All I could think was, please don’t be here, please don’t be here.

  “Mark and Mary showed up about an hour ago and some family members of Dan and Kristen too. That’s it, so far. Why? You sound worried.”

  “It’s nothing. I’m just nervous about people, the people we invited, getting here safely, that is.” That wasn’t entirely bullshit. “Open the gate, please, and don’t forget the other cars behind me. I don’t want the spike strips coming up as they’re driving over them. We already changed Troy’s tire, and I’ve had my fill of changing flats these last few days!” I had to end on a positive note or Tyler would’ve bugged me every second for the better part of the next few days, unless I told him who
I didn’t want to be here.

  The gates opened, the spike strips disappeared into the dirt and we moved to the next gate. As soon as we pulled up to it, the gates closed behind the second police cruiser Chris was driving and the metal doors in front of me opened. That was definitely a good fail-safe to be sure the infected did not get in when we were coming or going. I was extremely thankful for all of my husband’s secrets. Some more than others, though.

  We unloaded everyone out of the cars and got Jasmine to the infirmary downstairs. It definitely felt weird being down there, knowing what was behind the shiny silver doors to surgical suite A.

  Tom looked at me knowingly as he laid Jasmine on one of the beds in front of the main open treatment area. We both turned our attention to the doors at the far end of the room before simply looking back at each other. Neither of us knew what to do.

  Now that Troy was here, we knew we’d have to show him and ask him to make a terrible decision. I also had to keep in mind that when the monster was a little boy, he had a loving mother, and that mother was upstairs, thinking her little boy was gone.

  He was, but not in the physical sense. There was nothing left of the sweet Cooper I only got to know for a few hours, but I doubted Nicole would see it that way.

  Dan’s mother, Nancy Bakers, who had arrived a few hours before we got back, was a retired combat medic who had worked as a surgeon when she retired from the military. Dan’s father, Tony, was here too. He was a carpenter, so he was upstairs, catching up with Dan. After all, there was no need for Tony down here. Nancy, though, she was definitely an asset to have around. My skills as a doctor were limited, and it seemed like I was now going to be off the doctor hook, per se.

  She immediately went to work on Jasmine and determined she did indeed have a concussion. We checked her over for scratches and bite marks but found none. Tom looked so defeated as he held this stranger’s hand.

  “What’s the matter, Tom? It’s just a concussion. You didn’t hit her with the door on purpose. She’ll be fine.”

  “I know. I just feel horrible that I didn’t say anything before I broke the door down.”

  “You know the infected are attracted by sound. We’re all learning a new way to fight and survive here. You can’t think of yourself as the exception. We’re only a few days into this new chaotic mess we now have to call living.”

  “I know,” he said as he seemed to just get sadder and then started rubbing his thumb over the top of her wrist.

  “All right, I call bullshit. You don’t feel bad about knocking Jasmine out. Well, you do, but that’s not it. What else is going on, Tom? I know we’ve only known each other for a few days, but you can talk to me if you need to. You need to get it out. I know this from what I went through with Jack. I kept everything in for so long, it started to eat me alive. When I finally talked to someone about what I was going through, I felt so much better. Talk to me.”

  “Well, she looks like Melissa. It’s scary, actually, how much she looks like her. We were going to have a baby and get married, but when I went away to boot camp, I lost both of them.”

  “I’m so sorry, Thomas. Losing people you love is difficult, especially with so much death around us now. She’s not Melissa, but I’m sure Jasmine will be happy to know that someone’s worried about her and helping her now.”

  “Yeah, I guess so. It’s just that when I saw Jasmine, it seemed like Melissa had never left me... like she was still alive.”

  “Melissa may be gone, but this beautiful woman is here and safe because of you. If you help Nancy here with taking care of Jasmine, I’m sure when she wakes up, she’ll be thrilled to get to know you. Even if you did accidentally knock her out.”

  Tom just smiled at me, and I knew he was going to be okay. It’s hard to figure out what’s going on with people that you’ve known for years, let alone someone you’ve just met, but I was happy that Tom knew he could talk to me if he needed to.

  He might be a big, bad, marine, but we all have things that can get to us. I needed Tom to not be upset. We all did if we were going to make it through this.

  Troy came through the door to the infirmary, and his eyes went wide. He looked like a kid in a candy store for the first time. He already had his hands full of notebooks and his laptop.

  Troy smiled brightly, “Where should I hook up and put my stuff?”

  “Well, I think we should set you up down there, but I want to show you in first.” I pointed down to the end of the room where the surgical suite that held Cooper was.

  “Let’s go, then!” Troy said with a huge smile. He was not going to keep that smile much longer. I’d bet my life on that.

  I looked at Tom, and he refused to look at me. I guess handling the ghost of his past love and the infected little Cooper at the same time was too much for him to take. I started to turn away, but Tom cleared his throat and jingled the key for the surgical room towards me.

  I grabbed the keys as nicely as I could and walked slowly to the doors. I heard Tom say something to Nancy, and thankfully, she walked out of the room. I wanted as few people to know about this as possible. I knew this was going to blow up in my face sooner or later, but I was hoping for later.

  I looked over at Troy with a serious expression. “You have to not make any sudden movements, and please, don’t scream,” I said quietly.

  “Oh no, do I really want this for my lab? What’s in there?”

  “Well, I told you about the kids we rescued, right? One was bitten and turned while he was here. We didn’t know what to do because he’s only four and we already had him inside the cabin. I figured we’d leave that up to you since you know more about the Z-Strain than anyone else.”

  “What... wait a minute...”

  I didn’t give Troy a chance to say anything else. I opened the door and there was Cooper, still infected. It was impossible and irrational, but I still wished with everything in my heart that I’d open the door, and he’d be back to being a little boy.

  Instead, he started thrashing and moaning at the sight of us. The soft restraints were leaving marks in his arms, and he was pulling so tightly against them that he even started to bleed black, infected blood from one of his ankles. Troy gasped at the sight of the infected Cooper and then held his arm up to his nose to stifle the smell. He just stood, staring for a good couple of minutes.

  I brought him around by grabbing some of the books he had in his hands and put them on the counter. He gave Cooper a wide berth and came over to me to put his laptop down on the same shelf.

  “We’re going to need to tighten those restraints. You know that, right? He doesn’t have a lot of room now, but he’s already started bleeding, and that’s going to make it easier for him to slip out of them.”

  “I know. I think we need to discuss if it’s worth keeping Cooper around or not, first.”

  “Cooper? That was his name?”

  “Yes. He was four, and we found him with his friends outside the gates here. They had run from their preschool after some parents that showed up for their children were infected. One of the teachers saved them, but he was already bitten. From what I could tell, it only took a few hours for the infection to take over.

  “Really? That would mean the Z-Strain is taking over quicker than what I’ve seen before, substantially quicker.”

  “Yes, it would, Troy, and I have so many things I want to talk to you about, but what do we do with him? When we went to the school this morning, we found his mother, Nicole. We brought her here too, but she doesn’t know about him. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Well, I don’t know. Why would you leave that up to me?”

  “You’re the one studying them! When we knew he was going to change, I didn’t know what to do. What am I supposed to do, kill a four-year-old? It’s an impossible situation!”

  “Yes, it is. I think the only thing to do is to tell his mother, have her say her last goodbyes and then we have to... ugh... end it.”

  “I don’t know. Nico
le seems pretty out of it, and I don’t want her to flip out, or go crazy, or something.”

  “Well, then we keep it quiet. We bring her down here just like you did with me and just show her. No one’s around, and we’re pretty far underground, so if she screams, I don’t think the others will hear.”

  “That’s not the part I’m worried about. What happens when it’s over? She’s going to tell people that we hid him down here, maybe that we even did this to him so you could experiment on him or something.”

  “You can’t think like that, Abby. She’ll be a mother, mourning the loss of her son. She probably thinks he’s gone already since he wasn’t at the school.”

  “That’s what I mean. She’s mourning his death already. If we show her him like this, she might not be able to take it. I think we should just get rid of him quietly.”

  “Wait. Didn’t you say that he came in with the other kids? Aren’t they going to say something to her if they know her?”

  “Oh shit. I didn’t even think of that. We absolutely have to tell her then.”

  “It’s the right thing to do, Abby, and you know it. It’s just how to handle it, that’s the problem.”

  “I think you’re right. Just bring her down here by herself and show her. Let her decide what’s next.”

  It was settled. We needed to tell Nicole that her son was infected and have her make the decision to end it or see if there was anything that could be done. I already knew we couldn’t reverse Cooper’s death, but we could use his blood to study the virus at least. We needed to leave that decision up to Nicole, though.

  I needed to use the bathroom and shower first. I was hot, angry, hungry, and tired. This was the never-ending day, it seemed. The never-ending three days was more like it. I looked at the clock on the wall above Cooper’s little, thrashing form. It was three-thirty. I hadn’t eaten anything other than the granola bar this morning, so I knew I was going to need to eat something before we had our talk with Nicole or I was going to be too weak to help her if she needed it.