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

by Morris, SJ

  I waved my gun in the air above my head and tried to speak, but every breath was excruciating, now that I was coming down from my adrenaline high.

  I finally managed to yell, “It’s okay... they’re... dead!”

  I scanned the tree line, to see if the woman’s previous screams had attracted any more infected, but I didn’t see any, which was amazing.

  I wholeheartedly waved at the couple again, and they started slowly moving in my direction.

  I knew there was a First Aid Kit in the van somewhere, stashed with the MREs. Ugh, I really didn’t want to go back there, but the pain in my ribs was terrible. I was going to need some painkillers if I was going to make it anywhere after what I just did.

  The couple finally made it within about ten feet of me, and the man pushed the woman protectively behind him, so I could only see her face peeking over his shoulder.

  The man spoke first, “Are you okay, ma’am?”

  “Yeah. I might have a few broken ribs and some bruises from a car crash, but I’ll be okay,” I said through labored breaths.

  “You haven’t been bitten, have you?”

  “No, just the scrapes from the car crash. You?”

  “No, neither of us has been bitten. Thanks for taking care of the zeds for us. We’ve been dodging these things all day, and we’re getting pretty tired.”

  “No problem.”

  “How did you get to them, though? You were behind them and then ran past them, but they didn’t attack you,” The man said as he took a step closer, trying to get a better look at me.

  “I have no idea. It seems that after the car crash the infected, or the zeds, as you called them, want nothing to do with me. I came face to face with one a few minutes ago and all he did was kind of sniff me and walk away. Then, I walked right up to him and put my gun in his face and pulled the trigger.”

  “Wow. You may just be the luckiest person alive right now if these things want nothing to do with you.”

  “I guess so, but I’d really like to know why because before the accident, they wanted me just as much as anyone else.”

  The thought of my kids, Chris, and the others popped into my head. Between the pain of my body and the ache now in my chest, I couldn’t help but start to cry a little.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  I quickly wiped the tears with my arm, “Yeah. It’s just that a lot’s happened to me in the last few days. I don’t know where my group is, or even if they’re alive still, or not.”

  The man was surprised at my admission, “Last few days? Where the hell have you been the last month and a half? The zeds are everywhere. I would give my left leg to only have had a bad couple of days. We’ve been on the run since this started, and we lost the rest of our fifteen-person group last week.”

  “Well...” I thought twice about telling these people of the cabin, but the looks on their faces told me their story was true, “I have a cabin that’s fortified against the infected with plenty of supplies and a large group of survivors. We’ve been holding up there since this started. A group of eight others and I went out to search for some people we invited to join us and ran into trouble. Some really bad guys caught up with us before we could find the others and all hell broke loose. I have no idea where the rest of my group is, but the cabin is up in Paradise Lakes, just north of High Point State Park. I was going to try and make my way back there once I figured out where the hell I am. Hopefully, the rest of my group is on their way back there now, instead of out looking for me.”

  “I know where Paradise Lakes is. It’s about a three or four-hour drive from here, I think. My folks and I used to go fishing up there when I was a kid.”

  “I have a map, but if you know the way, I’d be more than appreciative for the company, and we definitely have room at the cabin for two more.”

  The woman jumped out in front of her protector immediately, “You would do that? Oh my God, we could stop running Kam! Whatever you need from us, we’ll do. I’m a great cook, and I can sew really well. Kamil here is really strong and good at fixing things. If it has a motor in it and it’s broken, he can get it running again. I guarantee it!”

  Kamil held his hands up to the young woman, smiling, “Relax, Dana. We don’t want to seem like crazy people in front of the nice lady.”

  I reached out, offering to shake their hands, “No worries, I can understand you guys have been on the run for a while, so it’s expected. So, Kamil, you said, and Dana? My name’s Abby. It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.”

  Dana smiled widely as she grabbed my hand, shaking it with joy, “The pleasure is all ours, Abby.”

  “I hate to stop our introductions short, but we’re about to have visitors,” I replied as I pointed to a group of about ten infected that were now breaking the tree line, headed in our direction.

  Dana started to scream again, and I harshly yelled at her to shut up. I don’t know if she was surprised by my brash words or if she realized that I wouldn’t have said them if it wasn’t imperative that she stopped, but either way, she heeded my command.

  I waved my hand for them to run towards where the van was as I hobbled towards the now energized group of zombies. I figured Dana’s screams really got them worked up because they seemed to pick up the pace almost instantly.

  I had checked the magazine when I took the gun from the glove compartment, and it was full. Knowing that I did the math. I’d gotten rid of Mr. Jeans, Flower Granny, Pajama man, and Miss Plastic, along with the other five. That took me nine shots total, to kill them all. I spent thirteen rounds, which meant I only had two rounds left. I quickly grabbed my pack, yanked out a fresh clip, and changed it out. The group was getting very close, but they too seemed disinterested in me.

  They even started to split down the middle to avoid me while they ravenously pursued my new friends, Dana and Kamil. The confidence this gave me made me feel a hundred-feet-tall. I was now a zombie hunter female superhero!

  I took my time and picked my targets. I picked off six with six shots before the rest of the group made it to where I stood and began shuffling quickly past me. I turned to follow them and took four more carefully placed shots to get rid of the rest of them.

  Again, Kamil and Dana stopped running to blankly at me for a few minutes. After the shock wore off a little, the two of them started slowly heading back in my direction. To my surprise, there were no questions. Kamil just reached out to put his shoulder under my arm and help me back to the van. I decided that after all of the unexplainable events they’d already been through, they had seen enough weird shit to know that asking questions didn’t lead to many answers these days.

  I told them there was a bunch of MREs in the van and asked if they could grab the First Aid Kit from the bench seat for me. Dana hurried into the truck and started filling her bag with the silver packets.

  Kamil found the First Aid Kit for me and came out with it. He sat me on the edge of a crumpled car and asked me to pull up my shirt. I reluctantly did, and we both cringed. My right side was covered in dark, purple bruises where my ribs were. Kamil jumped back as his eyes found the extended cut that came out of my pants, over my hip, to just under my armpit. I looked down also, and what I saw took my breath away. The cut was black, and the veins around it were showing black under my skin. My eyes met Kamil’s, and he backed up a little more. I reached out to touch the cut, and the skin around it was much warmer than the rest of my body.

  Is this why the infected ignored me, I wondered? Was I infected, as I’d thought I was before? But how is it that I don’t have a fever anymore? Do I?

  I dropped my shirt and reached up to my forehead. I concluded that my temperature was normal. I wasn’t incredibly thirsty, I was still lucid, and I was talking. I felt the pain that my broken ribs caused too. This didn’t make any sense.

  I looked at Kamil as I searched my brain for some kind of timetable of how long it was since Liam’s goon had cut me up. It had at least been eight to ten hours or more. Tha
t sick fuck probably wasn’t cleaning his knife. He was rubbing infected blood or something else on it!

  Kamil pulled his finger to his lips and nodded his head in the direction of Dana, who was still happily stuffing MRE pouches in her bag as she was eating others. Kamil shook his head no, and I was guessing he wanted me to keep quiet about what we both saw.

  His reaction took me by surprise since he knew I was infected in some way. I guessed if someone promised me a ticket out of this zombie-infested world and into a safe haven, I’d put up with the possibility of them being infected also.

  As long as I wasn’t trying to eat anyone, I figured we could keep our secret.

  It was hard to think about anything but the timetable of how long it had been since I was cut up. I had blacked out once I got in the van, and I had no idea how long I was out for. I knew I was rescued at night, and when I first came to, the sun was just rising. We were in the van for at least an hour before I jumped Ben and shot Liam. Still, it was frustrating to have so much time unaccounted for.

  However, I had to put that in the back of my mind.

  Right now, I needed to wrap my ribs tightly, take some painkillers, and get off my feet as soon as possible. There was no way I was spending any more time near this van. We had to find someplace safe where we could spend the night.

  “Hey, Kamil, can you help me wrap my ribs, please?”

  He shook his head yes and walked me further around the side of the van. We both looked around for infected, and when we were satisfied, there were none at the moment, he grabbed the bandage from me, and I lifted my shirt. He started wrapping tightly, which hurt, but it was good that he knew it needed to be snug. He looked me in the eyes when he got to the top of the black cut.

  Kamil looked at me with concern in his eyes, “Do you want to put some gauze over that before I wrap it? It doesn’t look like it’s bleeding, but it does look wet.”

  “Yeah, I guess gauze is a good idea.”

  He grabbed the gauze pads out of the First Aid box and opened them with his mouth, without thinking about it. When he realized what he did, he started frantically checking the cover of the gauze for any black blood.

  “There was no blood on it, you didn’t get any in your mouth,” I said sadly as I knew that him helping me was the reason for his anxiety.

  Kamil whispered, “Okay, thanks. No offense. I don’t know what happened to you, but I don’t want to take any chances. I’ve seen that crap get in someone’s eye, and they didn’t last more than two hours before we were fighting him off.”

  “Understood, no offense taken. I’m not sure what to make of it either since this only happened early last night. It’s been well over eight hours, and I’m still okay. Like, not eating people, okay. It doesn’t make sense that I’m not infected, dead, and chomping on the living yet.”

  Dana popped her head around the side of the van, “You guys okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m helping Abby wrap up her broken ribs is all,” Kamil said quietly as he placed the gauze quickly and resumed wrapping.

  “Okay, do you guys want to eat now? I can set up one of the quick set stoves and get us something warm to eat.”

  “No. We should get going. Grab as many MREs as you can carry comfortably so we can head out. We need to try and find somewhere safe to spend the night,” I said as I scanned the area around us for any more infected.

  Dana looked up at Kamil and he nodded his head in agreement.

  Kamil handed his pack to Dana and she filled it with MREs too. With all of us as packed up as we could comfortably be, I decided to venture a look at what was left of Liam, just in case he had anything that might be useful to us on him.

  I went to the front of the overturned van and reached through the shattered window. What was left of Liam was starting to smell fairly ripe in the high afternoon sun, but I needed to check. I reached up and over his dangling remains and released the seat belt. His upper body dangled from his legs that were still trapped between the seat and the steering column.

  His body only dropped as far as his pinned legs would allow. I saw that he had a holstered handgun and a few extra clips on it. I relieved him of the belt and wrapped it around my waist. It didn’t even come close to fitting, not even on the last hole. I handed it to Kamil, who was standing beside me, looking up and down the abandoned street, watching for any unwanted visitors.

  “It doesn’t have a silencer, but you can use it in extreme circumstances. There are two full extra magazines here, too. Do you know how to use one of these?” I asked as I handed the belt over to Kamil.

  He grabbed it with his pointer finger and thumb like it was going to bite him and looked at me funny before answering.

  “My dad took me hunting when I was a kid, so I’m okay with guns for the most part. I’d rather not put on a dead man’s belt, though. Especially one that’s covered in… whatever this is.”

  “Well, wipe it off with something and put it on. Just in case. Where are your weapons, anyway? You two have been on your own for the last week, you said, right? What have you been using to defend yourselves against the infected?”

  “Nothing. We avoid them as much as possible, and when it’s not, we run like our lives depend on it, because they do. We never stop in one place for too long and only move during daylight hours.”

  I looked at the two dumbfounded, “That is what’s worked for you all this time?”

  “Well, there were the others in our group that had machetes, guns, and other weapons, but when we lost them, we didn’t have time to grab anything. We had to get out of there, or we would have been dead, too. Since then, we’ve opted to stay out of sight and be too fast to catch,” Kamil said sadly.

  “You did have time to go back for one thing, Kamil, and I’m glad you did. Kamil here saved me,” Dana said as she smiled at him.

  “I didn’t save you. I just did what anyone else would have done in that situation.”

  “No. The others all scattered as soon as Bobby turned. You rushed in, and when you saw what was happening, you jumped into the fight and pulled us out.”

  “A lot of good that did Paul, though.”

  “Kamil, you know you did what you could to save Paul, but it was an awful situation, and you can’t stop everything bad from happening. At least you tried.”

  Dana turned to me now, “Bobby was the unofficial leader of our group and we were staying in an abandoned garden store. It was the only building along the highway for miles in a farming town, more west of here, in Pennsylvania. Bobby, Kamil and a bunch of others went out to find supplies. On their way back, there were a few zeds trailing them and when they fought them off, Bobby was chopping at them with his machete. Kamil said he got the zed’s blood all over his face and in his eyes. When they got back into camp, Kamil wanted to separate Bobby from everyone else until we knew he wasn’t going to change. I agreed, for the safety of everyone but Bobby had more friends than we did. His wife, Lisa and his son, Paul were in our group too. They refused to separate Bobby from the rest of us because they said it was too dangerous to split up and too barbaric to tie him up. We all went to sleep that night and Kamil was on watch outside when it happened. Bobby turned while we slept and everyone woke up to Paul screaming, as Bobby devoured his wife. Kamil came running in as everyone scattered. I ran for Paul, grabbed him and we huddled in the corner of the room since our exit was blocked by Bobby and now his wife, who were grabbing and tearing at the others. As they were bitten and died, they each, in turn, came back and started going after the others. It happened so fast.”

  Dana started to cry, and Kamil put his arm around her shoulder as he continued to scan the street.

  Dana continued, “Bobby was heading right for Paul and me when Kamil came charging over. He tackled Bobby to the ground. He grabbed me and started pulling me to the exit. I had Paul’s hand, but Bobby grabbed Paul’s leg and bit him. He bit his own son! Paul screamed in agony as I tried to pull him away from Bobby. Kamil looked back and saw what happened. He loo
ked me in the eyes and told me that I should let him go, so I did. Kamil got me out of there and we ran. We didn’t see any more of our group, and when I asked Kamil, he said they were all dead, so we kept running. He’s kept me safe this whole time. So, yes, Kamil, you did save me, and you continue to save me every day.”

  There was nothing else to say to that, so Kamil grabbed the blanket from the back of the van, wiped off the belt and put it on.

  I continued my search of Liam and found a map in his pocket. The map had coordinates on it, and some areas circled in red with question marks. I didn’t know why these places were important to Liam and his group of thugs, but I sure as hell was going to try and find out.

  First, though, we needed to get back to the cabin and I needed to make sure the rest of the group and my kids were safe. I just hoped that Chris, Tom, and the other guys made it away from the farmhouse safely and went back to the cabin too.

  All of this was running through my head at the same time as the thoughts of possibly being infected. I was scared to go to sleep around my newfound friends, especially after Dana’s story, and I was sure he wasn’t going to find it easy to go to sleep around me either, knowing I might be infected.

  I could see it in his eyes that there was something between Kamil and Dana. It might have only been that they’d survived something so horrific together, but I thought it was something different. I knew he would die to protect her.

  Maybe that’s what Chris and I have… I thought. If he’s still alive, that is.

  Chapter 20

  I shoved Liam’s map in the front zipper of my pack and we headed out on foot. From the road signs I saw, I figured that Liam was driving south, and it looked like we were in the Columbus area of New Jersey, just off of Route 206.

  I looked at the map as we walked in quiet and figured out how we were going to get on 206 and follow it north to High Point State Park. If we made it there, I could figure out how to get to the cabin pretty easily. I shared my plan with Kamil, and he said it was a good idea but that it would be challenging to travel on the highway since there were wrecks everywhere.