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

by Morris, SJ

  Hopefully, the wreckage only consisted of vehicles, instead of other groups of awful people. I didn’t think I could take another run-in with shitty individuals. At this point, I’d much rather deal with the dead.

  Chapter 25

  It was a smooth ride out of town. We were on the back roads, and there weren’t too many car accidents blocking the path for Chuck’s big, red pickup. The ones that were there, we either drove off-road a little to get around or pushed our way through, slowly. This was the advantage of driving in a solid, old Ford from before the era of plastic-based cars.

  There were a few infected around but definitely not as many as there had been just days before. It made me start to think about why the infected grouped together in such large numbers the other night and why they might all be headed in the same direction, south.

  I hadn’t seen any smoke from a fire that might have been drawing them. I didn’t hear any explosions or loud noises in the distance that might have attracted them. Then, I remembered when my group drove out to try and save Jake. The infected seemed to always know where we were going to be before we got there.

  My guess was, something big happened down south and the moaning telephone game the infected seemed to play, in order to locate food, must have been being played on a massive scale. I just hoped the game was over, for now, and that we weren’t driving into another herd of them, or even worse.

  I also hoped a herd hadn’t found its path crossing with the cabin up north. The concrete wall and chain-link fence were great protections, but I wasn’t sure it could stand up to thousands of the infected, fighting to get in. With the numbers we saw the other night, if they thought there was food inside the walls, I couldn’t be sure that at some point, they wouldn’t end up stomping on top of one another and just walking over the wall.

  This created a terrible picture in my mind and a pit in my stomach. The need to get home was even greater now. Thanks, brain, for driving me even more insane.

  “So, Chuck, can’t this thing go any faster?” I said with a small panic in my voice that made Kamil look around for the threat I seemed to be referencing.

  “Well, sweetie, this ain’t no ‘old thing.’ This here is Betsy. She’s been the most reliable truck I’ve ever owned, and I want to keep her that way. With all the crap we’ve driven over, including bodies, I’d rather keep it under forty. I don’t want to get body parts sucked up into the engine if I can help it, and if something or someone runs out in front of us, I want to be prepared to stop quickly,” he said with a sour face.

  “I understand, Chuck, but we really need to get to the cabin, and from the map here, it looks like we’re at least three and a half hours away, but that would’ve been my estimate before the zombie apocalypse, using highways and driving sixty miles an hour. If we could step up the pace when we have a clear road, that would shave off some time,” I said, with my mind running a million miles an hour. Thinking about the cabin being overrun with infected and my kids, scared inside, made the urge to get home palpable.

  “I’ll try, sweetheart, but like I said, we need to make sure we keep the truck in good, running condition. If we didn’t have Betsy, we’d be walking. Or I’d be walking, and you’d be riding your bikes ahead of me.”

  Dana turned and snapped at Chuck, “We would never leave you, Chuck! How could you even say that?”

  “Sorry, I know you guys are good people, but I wouldn’t want you to be held up for me. I’m an old man, I can’t ride a bike like I used to, even if I had one.”

  Dana smiled at Chuck, “We could just stick you and the gear in the kid’s buggy, attached to Kamil’s bike.”

  The thought of Chuck crammed in the buggy, being towed by Kamil in his overalls and too-tight shirt, made me laugh out loud. It was quite a comical sight, at least in my head, but Kamil didn’t seem to find it too funny. He only sneered at Dana and me, as we giggled.

  Keeping to the back roads that were pretty much parallel with Route 206, we slowly entered a community of reasonably large houses with nicely manicured lawns. Well, at least the landscaping looked that way before everything became overgrown these last few months.

  The sights around us were what we came to expect. The windows were broken out of most of the houses, there was dry, red, and black blood on the doors and splattered over the once pristine, white, concrete driveways and sidewalks. There were expensive, wrecked cars and SUVs in the street and one, even sticking out from what used to be the bay window of one of the houses.

  I didn’t even want to begin to imagine the things that happened here, but of course, with the way my mind worked, there was no way it would allow me to escape my visions of the horrors that likely transpired here.

  I immediately started thinking of kids playing on the street happily, neighbors mowing lawns and waving hello to one another, right up until the infected marched through the community and devoured every man, woman, and child, without another thought.

  I yelled as my eyes focused on a big house at the corner of the block we just turned onto, “Oh my God, Chuck, stop the truck right now!”

  The house was a good deal down the road, but it was swarmed with infected, at least ten deep, packed all around it, from what I could tell. Chuck stopped as I instructed, and I rolled the window down all the way.

  They were clawing at the house, and the moaning was incredibly loud.

  Dana jumped up, “What the hell is that?”

  “That, Dana, is what looks like another herd forming, and I assume there are people inside that house. Otherwise, the infected wouldn’t be trying to get in so excitedly,” I responded.

  “No, not that, that!” She pointed to the sky outside Chuck’s window.

  There was something small and black hovering in the air, above the houses to our left.

  “Oh, good lord, first zombies and now Aliens? I’m not sure how much more of this crap I can take,” Chuck said, trying to get a better look at the thing Dana pointed out to all of us.

  Kamil laughed and shook his head, “It’s not Aliens, Chuck.”

  “If not Aliens, then what the hell is it because it’s coming closer to us, and now it’s flashing red?”

  Chuck’s comment drew my attention away from the herd forming in front of the house down the block. I looked, and sure enough, whatever it was, was flying closer to us, and there was a little white and red light on the bottom, flashing quickly.

  As it got closer, I could see more of what it was.

  “It’s a drone. One of those quadcopter things that people put cameras on and fly around for fun,” I said.

  Dana looked puzzled, “What the hell is it doing out here and who the heck is flying it?”

  “I don’t know, maybe the people in that house are looking for help,” I replied.

  The drone was now hovering right in front of the truck, about ten feet away, and the light stopped flashing. The drone dipped up and down as if it was saying hello. I stuck my head out of the window to get a better look, and the drone immediately flew over to me.

  When it arrived, it started bouncing and blinking wildly.

  Dana giggled, “I think it likes you, Abby.”

  Then, it clicked.

  “Holy shit! Is that you, Dan?” I yelled, a little louder than I wanted to, looking over at the house the infected were attacking to make sure I didn’t draw any unwanted attention our way, just yet.

  The drone stood still. It hovered about five feet away from my window and finally blinked its light twice.

  “Oh my God! It is you guys. Once for no, twice for yes, right?” I excitedly asked the drone, as if it was a person and it blinked two more times. “Oh, wow! You have no idea how happy I am to know you guys are okay. You are okay, aren’t you?”

  The drone flashed another two times.

  “Did everyone make it back to the cabin after I was kidnapped, like Jake and his family? Did you rescue them? Are my kids okay? Did Chris and Tom make it out of that house?”

  Kamil chuckled, “You
might want to ask one question at a time, Abby.”

  The drone blinked another two times and then turned towards the house down the street. I was so relieved it blinked twice for yes, that everyone seemed to be okay.

  I knew not everyone made it out of that house with Liam and his group, but the drone saying yes overall made me feel that at least most of the people I cared about seemed to be okay. It was all I had to cling to at the moment, and I was not letting it go for anything.

  The drone came back quickly and blinked once for no.

  “What do you mean, no? The only reason that house is swarmed like that is because there are people inside. We have to make an effort to save them if we can,” I demanded.

  The drone blinked once again for no.

  “I’m sorry, this isn’t up for debate. Now that we have the drone, you can fly it over there to get the attention of the infected and draw them away. Do you have any noises you can make with that thing? It’s pretty quiet, so without some noises, you might have to get pretty close to the infected to draw them away, but I don’t want to lose you... um, it... I don’t want to lose the drone.”

  The drone kind of hovered for a while with no lights blinking, and I knew if Chris were there with Dan, they were arguing at that very moment over what to do.

  We didn’t have time for this.

  I assumed the drone ran on some form of energy that needed to be replenished every so often. Therefore, I used that to my advantage.

  “Hey, guys, I assume this little drone of yours runs on gas or a battery, and it doesn’t last forever, so let’s hurry this up. Chris, if you’re there, then you know me. I’m going to try and save anyone in that house, with or without your help,” I yelled at the device.

  After that, it was only a matter of seconds before the drone was off, flying in the direction of the swarmed house.

  Kamil smiled at me, “You really are a pain in the ass, aren’t you, Abby? This Chris guy must really not like having to deal with you being so stubborn and bullheaded.”

  “Yeah, you could say he hasn’t been happy with my decision to go out with him and his highly trained soldiers. But I’ll have you know that I can hold my own, I’m a pretty good shot,” I smiled back at him.

  I was so happy for the first time in days. I knew my family and friends, for the most part, were okay, and we were going to have help getting home to them. This was turning out to be an awesome day. I just hoped I didn’t speak too soon.

  After all, there was a group of infected a block away from us, that we’d never be able to fight off if they realized we were here, no matter how solidly built Old Betsy was.

  We all watched in silence as the drone got closer to the house. We all jumped in unison when a loud police siren came from the drone. So, they did put some kind of noise on that thing, smart boys! My smile widened as I felt my chest swell with pride.

  “Everybody, duck down! We don’t want any infected to know we’re here if we can help it,” I whispered as everyone crouched as low as they could.

  The tops of our heads and eyes were the only things visible from outside the truck. Dana, thankfully, had her hand over her mouth to remind herself not to scream, because a few seconds after the siren started going off, there were infected all around us, walking faster towards the blaring siren.

  From what I could see, the plan was working. The drone was hovering in the middle of the street, with the lights flashing and the siren blaring. All of the infected turned toward the sound, forgetting all about the house.

  When they all appeared to be as close as they could get to it, the drone slowly took off, down the block, past from us.

  It was a scary sight to see. The sheer number of all of them was staggering when they were on the street, instead of clumped up together against the house. Being on a rooftop and watching them pass is one thing. It’s a whole other experience when you’re at pretty much eye-level on the ground with them.

  Dana started shaking, and Kamil pulled her close, easing her down to the floor of the truck, so she couldn’t see anything. Chuck pretty much did the same thing, which was surprising since it didn’t look like he was going to fit under the steering column. For the most part, he did, though. His head was resting on the door, and Chuck had his eyes closed. I guess he’d seen enough of these things from the other night as well.

  A good, long while passed, and I waited until I could no longer hear the siren. When I was fairly certain it was safe, I popped my head up a little to have a look around. The only infected I saw were the ones that were pretty much trampled into the ground or stuck under the tires of wrecked cars, and they posed no real threat.

  “Hey, guys, I’m going to get out and get rid of the stragglers. Once I’m done, I’ll come back and Kamil, I want you ready to come with me to that house. I’m going to go knock on the door and see who’s inside, but I want you out of sight, with the gun ready, just in case they’re not good people.”

  Kamil shook his head, “I’m not that good of a shot, Abby. I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that. Why don’t I go knock, and you stay hidden? You already said so yourself that you’re a good shot. Plus, if they aren’t good people, I think they’ll be less likely to mess with me over a five-foot-nothing soccer mom in leather pants.”

  “Hey, I take offense to that. I am five-foot-five, and my boys played lacrosse,” I whispered as angrily as I could muster.

  He did have a point, though.

  “Okay, Mr. Muscle Man, let’s go take care of the stragglers together, and then you can go up to the house and knock. I’m going to be on the porch of the house next door. There are pretty big bushes I can hide in, hanging over the porch, and I don’t think they can see very well out the windows. They all look barricaded. They’d have to be, to have kept all of those infected out for as long as they did.”

  “Sounds good to me. Dana, stay here with Chuck and keep quiet,” Kamil said, kissing her hand. She nodded at him and tucked her head back down.

  “Don’t worry, buddy, I won’t let anything happen to her,” Chuck said, winking as he pulled out his Colt 45.

  “Chuck, let’s not shoot off that cannon unless it’s absolutely necessary. The noise could bring back all of the infected the drone drew away. That’s something I’d rather not have happen,” I whispered, and Chuck nodded in agreement.

  Kamil and I headed out. We used our knives to kill the brains of the infected we came across. There weren’t many, thankfully. Just the ones that were so beat up and battered that they couldn’t follow the group that was going after the drone.

  I tried to stay out of sight as much as possible, just in case we needed the element of surprise. When we were sure the area was as clear as we were going to get it, Kamil slowly walked up to the house with his hands up. His eyes searched the house for signs of life, as did mine, while I hid in the overgrown bushes of the house next door.

  I had a pretty good view of the front door, but I wished I could see the back door, also. My worry was that there was a group of not-so-good people inside, and they were going to hurt Kamil, or they were going to flank him from the rear of the house only to shoot him.

  My imagination was running wild with all of the negative possibilities when the door swung open, and a girl about the same age as my Allycia jumped out, into Kamil’s arms.

  She was thanking him in between her sobs. I waited quietly, while Kamil tried to calm her down and talk to her.

  I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he was holding her with one arm while pointing inside the house and then down the street with his free hand. I guessed he was asking her if there was anyone else in the house with her and telling her he made sure the infected were no longer out here.

  Soon enough, after they stopped talking, she again hugged him tightly, and Kamil gave me a thumbs up. I stood up from my hiding spot and walked slowly over to the front porch, where they stood.

  “Hey Kamil, how about you introduce me to your new friend?” I said quietly.

&nbs
p; The girl jumped, clasping onto Kamil’s shoulders like she was going to jump up, onto his back.

  “There’s no need to worry, Bernice. This is my friend, Abby. She’s one of the people in my group I told you about. We all helped drive the zeds away from your house,” Kamil said while pulling her back around in front of him.

  Her eyes were swollen and red from crying, but she managed a smile and then bolted down the stairs to hug me too.

  “Thank you so much! It’s been almost a week since those things started showing up at the house. I couldn’t get out, and I was so scared. My dad left weeks ago to get more food, and he hasn’t come back yet. My mom said she thought she saw my dad in the crowd of them, gathering in front of the house, so she went out the back door to try and get him. I watched them eat her right over here,” Bernice said, crying as she walked over to the corner of the front yard. There was only a pile of bloodied clothes and bones left on the ground.

  She dropped to her knees, with her face in her hands, rocking, asking why this was happening, over and over again.

  I held up my hand to the truck, telling them to wait and I motioned to Kamil, that I was going to go inside.

  Kamil whispered to me, “She said she was the only one left in the house, so it should be clear.”

  I walked up the steps and into the front foyer of the massive house. There was a couch and a long coffee table, just off to the side of the door. I assumed she was using it to barricade the door. The windows were all boarded up with blankets nailed over them, so you couldn’t see outside. Other than that, the house wasn’t too much of a mess.

  It looked like, even during the apocalypse, either Bernice or her mother, were still very tidy people. I had my gun drawn, expecting the worst, which I hoped, was just another cat. By now, it was common knowledge, how much cats loved to scare the shit out of me and how much I enjoyed it.

  I was not going to be caught unaware, though. I searched, room to room, and found no one else, dead or alive. However, a quick scream from outside made me run for the door.