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

by Morris, SJ

  Sampson started moving around, and I took this opportunity to lean him over the side of the building, while Kamil pushed his entire body weight onto Sampson’s his back, so he couldn’t go anywhere. He woke up and started thrashing.

  “What the hell are you doing? Where the fuck am I?” He yelled.

  The infected below that couldn’t force their way into the group feeding on Scotty looked up immediately with their milky white eyes and started clawing at the wall towards us. Sampson finally realized where he was and started screaming for help. I ripped a piece of his tattered shirt off and shoved it in his mouth.

  “You like to beat and torture people, right? This is what you get for it, you piece of shit. You see those infected down there? They’re having a fantastic meal, and it consists of your friend Scotty. Guess what, buddy, you’re next.”

  He started crying and tried talking through the cloth, so I removed it.

  “No! You can’t do this! I know things, you can’t kill me!”

  “What kind of things could you possibly know that we’d even remotely care about?”

  “There’s a secret military compound about an hour walk from here. I saw it with my own eyes!” He said quickly.

  “If it’s supposed to be a secret, how do you expect me to believe you know about it, you toothless piece of hillbilly crap?” I spat out with uncontainable anger.

  “When we were scavenging for food and places to stay yesterday afternoon, we saw an entire group of military guys, heavily armed, going through a church. They came out with a guy in a black hood like they were kidnapping him. They got him down on the ground and stuck him with a needle. He stopped fighting, and they got him on a gurney and took him away. They were on foot and I wanted to know what was going on, so we followed them.”

  “You want me to believe that in the middle of a zombie apocalypse the military is kidnapping people and somehow you and your ragtag group of shit-stains somehow managed to follow them without being captured or killed yourselves?” I laughed.

  “It’s the truth! Well, we didn’t do that great of a job following them. They ran into a group of walkers and started shooting, so we hid, and when we came back out, they were gone. It was by chance we kept walking in the same direction as them. We walked up to the edge of some kind of farm and saw them again. There was an electric fence around what looked like a farm, so we stopped. Then, we saw the men again. They walked up to the barn and disappeared inside, kidnapped guy and all. We hung out for a while, and more men in full military get-ups came and went from the barn to the farmhouse. Some of them looked like they were doctors. They were wearing those long white coats.”

  “You have got to be kidding me. Can you show me where this is on a map?” I asked Sampson as sweat poured from his face.

  “Are you kidding me, Abby? This asshole tried to rape and murder us, and you’re listening to his bullshit?” yelled Kamil.

  I pulled out my map and showed Kamil, “Look, there’s a location circled in red right here, and I think it’s pretty close to the location jackass here is talking about. If this is why Liam had these places circled, it may lead me to the group of scientists that know more about this virus. I need to know what the hell happened. These men might be able to tell me. I used to work for the CDC, and hopefully, whatever information I may be able to get will help me and the other scientist at the cabin fix this mess! I have to try, Kamil,” I pleaded with tears in my eyes.

  Kamil stepped away from Sampson’s body with a groan, “Okay, fine, but we have to be careful.”

  Sampson sighed with relief, “Oh thank you. Thank you, so very much! I can be of use, I promise, and I won’t try anything funny. I swear it! Pull me up, and I’ll show you whatever you want!”

  “Not just yet. Is this the area you went to with the military personnel?” I asked him, pointing to the red circle with a question mark on the map I took from Liam.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s it. It was off of Olsen Lane because I remember seeing the sign for the farm in the distance, and it was called Olsen Farm and Feed.”

  “How many soldiers did you see? Give me an estimate,” I demanded.

  “There were about thirty coming and going, I think. There were only six in the group we found that kidnapped the guy.”

  “What type of weapons did they have, and what type of security did you see?”

  Sampson searched his thoughts a few moments before speaking, “Um, they had huge rifles with silencers on them, but I’ve never seen the kind they were carrying. I didn’t see anything other than the electric fence. Oh, and it looked like they were using a key card system to get into the barn and the farmhouse. Other than that, I have no idea. We hung out for a while, but walkers showed up, so we had to move.”

  “Are you sure that’s all you remember?”

  “Yeah. We left the farmhouse quick and found a water tower to hang out on overnight, and that’s when the huge herd of walkers passed under us. We decided to follow where they were going figuring we could scavenge from any groups of survivors the herd cleared out.”

  “You are despicable, you know that, right?”

  “Hey, I can’t help it if the walkers destroy, and I take what’s left to survive. It’s what you’re doing too, but you just won’t cop to it.”

  “Don’t compare me to you, you sick piece of garbage. You take and take. You don’t stop to help anyone but yourself, and you see this human catastrophe as a way to do whatever the fuck you want. Instead of trying to help, you’re making more of a mess. You disgust me,” I spat in his face and tossed him over the edge.

  I didn’t hear him hit the ground like Scotty. There were too many hands already waiting for him. I listened to his screams as he was devoured and ripped to bite-sized pieces. I know he deserved it, but still, what had I become?

  He may have been a waste of life but had the last few weeks, or the previous few days, more specifically, really changed me that much? I guess so because that was the only feeling of remorse I had. It lasted all of five seconds before I shook it off and turned to the rest of my group to figure out what was next.

  Just as planned, I went outside after a few minutes and finished off the infected who were dining on dear old Scotty and Sampson, may they burn in Hell.

  Afterward, I walked around the back of the building to be sure we weren’t going to be surprised by another large amount of infected. All we needed was for us to get our gear and get ready to go and not be able to go anywhere because zombies trapped us again.

  I found a few pretty badly decomposed infected eating what was left of Carl and Jessup. I stood and watched them for a while and they seemed to be slowing as they ate more, like they were getting full.

  The one infected who was at the stomach area of one of the boys was still trying to shove bits of flesh in its mouth, while its mouth was already completely full. It looked like this one was at max capacity, and he couldn’t eat another bite, but he continued to try.

  There was a total of three infected, chewing on the boys. I took out the newest two and left the overstuffed, oldest third.

  Maybe that’s how he lasted the longest. He was the most deteriorated of the three, but he also just kept trying to shove more in his mouth. Maybe fresh meat helped keep the virus alive in the tissues of the deceased host.

  I stuck my knife in the top of its head, and it thumped over sideways, with flesh spilling from its mouth. It was a pretty gruesome scene, and boy, did it stink. Yet, I’d been around this infected black blood so often, that I didn’t really smell it anymore. So, I decided to take this opportunity to try and learn a little more about these undead abominations.

  I took my knife and cut away what was left of its shirt. I then took a deep breath of cleaner air and said a quick prayer, even though I haven’t believed in God in a long time. I dug my knife into its chest and started the ‘Y’ incision for my shoddy outdoor autopsy. What I found astounded me.

  I broke away the ribs, which were like dry turkey bones. I
exposed the heart and lungs, and they looked incredibly healthy, except for the darker than usual coloring and solid black veins, running through the organs themselves.

  I surmised that the virus only maintains the vital internal organs for keeping the infected walking around, so they were able to locate and find more hosts to infect. Again, this was acting more like a parasite than a virus or an extremely dangerous combination of the two.

  The heart pumped infected blood to all of the vital organs, and once the infected was too decomposed to go on, my guess was that the virus would continue to live in the infected body long enough for the body to swell and eventually pop, where the infected blood would have the best chance to infect someone else.

  I’d have to capture one of the infected and watch it until it decomposed as much as it was going to in order to prove my theory, though.

  Those were thoughts for another day. Right now, I had to get my new friends safely to the cabin and, hopefully, get some more people to come with me to check out this Olsen Farm and Feed.

  There might be some answers there, but with the military presence, I couldn’t just walk up and be like, ‘Hey guys! I used to work with the CDC, and I’ve seen this virus before, so I know a little about what’s going on. Who wants to fill me in?’ Yeah, that would surely get me thrown in a dark cell somewhere, if not outright killed.

  “Hey, Abby, oh God, what the hell are you doing?” Dana said as she pulled her shirt over her nose.

  “Oh, ugh sorry. I was using the opportunity to study them a little. I’m done, so I’m going to do another sweep around the building and come back in.”

  “Eew. As long as you don’t cut any more of them open like that, I don’t care what you do. Kamil wanted me to tell you he found your bag, with your gun and my pack, with food, so we can get something to eat before we get back on the road.”

  “Okay, good. I’ll be right in.”

  “Maybe use the hose over there to wash up as best you can before you come inside, please.”

  “Will do, Dana,” I said with a smile.

  I did another sweep around the building and found no more infected. I hoped I was right to believe we had already attracted all the ones that were left in the area. I cleaned up with the cold hose water and took the chance while alone to take my shirt off and have a look under the bandage on my ribs.

  The black cut was still there, but it looked like it had started healing, which was amazing and odd all at the same time. All of the other infected I saw, with bullet wounds or cuts, never seemed to heal. This was starting to scab over, albeit the scab was black, but it was a scab, nonetheless.

  I left the bandage off, rinsed the wound again to make sure nothing else got in the cut and put my shirt back on. My ribs were still tender, so I needed to make sure to wrap them again. Maybe I could have Kamil do it and show him that I looked like I was healing. Perhaps that would help put his mind at ease a little.

  We blocked the front door again, just in case, so I climbed the bucket loader and made my way up to the roof. I looked out over the trees, toward the north. I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I closed my eyes and listened as hard as I could. I heard nothing but the birds and a light breeze, moving the leaves. It was nice to hear nothing. I was downwind from the area we were going to be heading in, so with the next breeze, I took in a deep breath.

  I smelled nothing other than... myself. Ugh, I stink!

  However, I took it as a good sign that I was able to smell myself, regardless of how rank the scent was. This meant there wasn’t a herd of infected coming at us like yesterday. Things seemed to be looking up.

  I went downstairs and everyone was eating. Dana started one of the propane burners she had and was cooking some MREs. Yum, not! I was going to stick to granola bars.

  Kamil was sitting, virtually on top of Dana. I didn’t think he was going to leave her side for more than a few minutes to go to the bathroom after what we had been through this afternoon. Chuck pulled a chair up to the counter Dana was cooking at and was smiling at her widely. If we weren’t careful, the next issue for our little band of merry men was going to be a love triangle.

  “So, Chuck, how did you end up here in the feed store?” I asked to try and pull him away from staring at Dana before Kamil noticed.

  “Well, my dear, this here store has proudly been in my family for three generations. After the news started telling everyone to stock up and stay inside, I decided to close up the store the best I could, so it didn’t get looted and destroyed. Plus, I had the big bottles of water for the water cooler here and I was going to bring them home. My wife, Emma, refused to come with me. She didn’t want to leave the house, just in case our daughter, Jessica, tried to call. Jessica took a job up in New York as a newspaper journalist a few months ago, and we hadn’t heard from her since this mess started. We hadn’t seen anything in our area yet, but we watched people eating each other on TV, so we knew it was bad. I figured Jessica was lost to us, since she was up in the city. I imagine the city was the worst place to be in a situation like this. So, I left my wife at the house and came here. I loaded up my truck with the water and locked up the store. I headed home, and when I got there, the front door was wide open, and the porch was covered in blood. I followed the blood trail to the backyard, where we have pens with pigs and sheep. I found my wife and neighbor trying to get into the pens at the animals. They were both... ugh, infected as you say.” Chuck paused a moment to clear his throat and rub his face briskly. “I… I started to cry, and my Emma turned towards me. She had a chunk ripped out of her neck, and she was coming right for me. I knew from what I saw on the TV earlier that she was beyond help. I ran to the shed and grabbed a shovel. When I turned, she was practically on top of me, biting at my face. I pushed her back, hard, and swung the shovel blade at her head. The blow knocked her over, but she was still trying to get up, so I smashed her head in. I didn’t have time to think before my neighbor, who I’d known since I was a young boy, came at me. He was covered in my wife’s blood, and who knows who else’s, but I did the same to him. I smashed his head in, too. I couldn’t stay at the house without my Emma, so I grabbed all of the canned goods we had and came back here.”

  The whole room was silent. Chuck wasn’t crying, he just stared out the window blankly. I presumed he had plenty of time to mourn while he was here by himself. He turned to me after a few moments and pulled a picture from his pocket, “Here, this is my Emma and my daughter, Jessie. It was taken last year at the annual County Fair. We had so much fun that day.”

  Chuck handed me the worn picture. Chuck, his wife, and his daughter were smiling in front of the Ferris wheel. Chuck looked 20 years younger in the picture than he did now, and his daughter looked a lot like Dana, which explained his ogling her.

  “They’re beautiful, Chuck. You’re a lucky guy,” I said, handing him back the picture.

  “I was. I was a lucky guy.”

  “Hey, why don’t we spend the night here and take a breather? I think we could all use some rest after last night and today. Then, we’ll head out to the cabin first thing in the morning,” I said, trying to change the subject.

  Kamil yawned, “Sounds good to me. I could definitely use some rest on something other than the ground.”

  Dana just nodded in agreement. I could tell she was hiding tears from Chuck’s story. She might have been hard and cruel today, agreeing to feed Samson and Scotty to the infected, but she was still a sensitive and caring person overall.

  I hadn’t known much about her or Kamil, other than what they told me about their experiences before running into me, but we’d already been through so much together that I felt safe with them. At the very least, I knew they had my back in a bind. Hell, they proved that a few times over the last few days.

  The problem, however, was still inherent inside me. I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening with me, and I knew my best bet was to get everyone to the cabin. Everyone could be safe there, and Troy could run some tests on me to get u
s some answers as to my newfound talents with the infected. At least, that was the plan.

  I smiled at Chuck, “So, you’re planning on coming with us when we leave, right?”

  “I don’t know. This feed store is all I have left, and even though it’s pretty much destroyed, it feels wrong to think about leaving,” Chuck said, with his eyes drawn to the floor, somberly.

  “You have to, Chuck. Abby said she has a cabin, and from what she’s told us, it’s pretty much a working farm. You’d be incredibly useful to everyone there since you know everything about farming. You own a feed store, for goodness sakes! Plus, I couldn’t leave without you, Chuck. We’re all in this together now, whether you like it or not,” Dana said while she gently grabbed his shoulder and then pulled him into a hug.

  Chuck replied with a tear running down his whiskered, weathered face, “I don’t know how I could say no to that, I guess.”

  We all got some much-needed rest, and I had Kamil wrap my ribs again. I showed him that I was starting to heal, and it seemed to put him at ease. He was still worried because I had no idea what was going on, but he seemed okay with it, for the most part.

  I guess he was just happy to be alive after yesterday and our terrible encounter with those horrible men today.

  I anticipated that the recent events were going to take a toll on Kamil’s frame of mind for a long time to come and rightfully so. I knew the feeling intimately myself, and I was going to let Kamil feel however he needed to, for as long as he wanted.

  Chuck gathered as much food and water as he could fit in a pack, and we tossed all of our gear, as well as our bikes, in the back of his pick-up truck.

  All four of us crammed into the truck tightly, and we were on the road about an hour after sunrise. I wanted to make sure we had as much sunlight as possible to get us as close to the cabin as we could get before having to stop again.

  Who knew what kind of wreckage we were going to come across on our way?