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

by Morris, SJ

  I bet people were trying to survive inside or scavenge food from the diner. They were probably overtaken by the infected, so they were now trapped inside. The dead were coming from all directions, walking up to the diner doors, banging, sniffing the air, and then either walking away slowly or moving off pushed aside by the next undead freak looking to check the area for someone to consume. They didn’t seem to stray far from the diner doors though. It was like they knew there were people inside, they just couldn’t figure out where or how to get them, so they stuck around.

  Pointing to the dinner through the windshield, Smith asked, “So, Abby. What do we do here?”

  “What do you mean what do we do? Which way is the cabin?” I asked hoping to avoid any confrontation.

  “It’s to the left, but what are we going to do about the people who are probably trapped inside that restaurant?”

  “Just turn on the EMF thingy and make the infected leave. The people inside, if they’re still alive, will be able to get away.”

  “We can’t just leave them there though. What if the people inside need more help than just a way out?”

  “Do you mean letting them get in the truck with us? Think here, Smith! We just escaped a government research facility run by a mad scientist who created the virus responsible for what I’m pretty certain is the extinction of the entire human race. What if those people inside aren’t good people? What if they’re more of Brigantine’s cronies? Did you think of that? The very people you want to help could just as easily turn on us and kill us for what we let happen to Brigantine. Or they could be rapists and murderers who would most certainly kill you for fun and do even worse with me. The people who have managed to survive this awful shit storm we now call life for this long aren’t people you want to sit down and have dinner with, buddy,” I said growing angry. This situation made me think of when we tried to help Justin, my daughter’s boyfriend but ended up facing Liam and his men who kidnapped and tortured me. I couldn’t fathom sharing a ride back to what was possibly left of the cabin and my family with men like that.

  “I know there are still people out there who support what Brigantine was doing, but I’m not so far gone to think that every person I come in contact with has to be evil. There has to be some good left in the world. Otherwise, why even continue? What if there are kids inside? What if your son and Chris were inside? Maybe they came looking for you, made it this far, and got trapped? If we leave without finding out, I don’t think you’d ever be able to forgive yourself,” Smith said as he pushed the button to activate the EMF.

  I had no reply for him. What if he was right? What if Tyler and Chris were stuck inside? Right away I jumped to the worst possible conclusion. Brigantine had done that to me. I saw the worst in every situation and all people now; that was my natural reaction. I felt another piece of my humanity die just then.

  I used to want to see the good in everything and everyone, but now, it was different. I was different. Even if not by my own doing, it was disheartening to know that I had changed and not necessarily for the better. I was shaken from my self-inflection by Smith yelling for whoever was inside the restaurant to run to the back of the truck.

  I looked outside, and the infected had cleared, but they were still in sight. Unable to break the invisible barrier the EMF held over them, they hovered a few hundred feet from us, staring longingly with their milky white eyes. The red doors to the diner opened slowly, and I watched as a very tall, dark-skinned man in tattered, green fatigues slid out and gently closed the door behind him while he swept the area with an extremely large rifle.

  I looked him over as he took in his surroundings. He looked to be calculating if moving from the relative safety of the doors was not as dangerous as it had been just a few moments ago. He didn’t look malicious, but most people who are, never do. Hell, if I’d met Liam on the street before he kidnapped and tried to kill me, I would’ve thought he was a decent guy. His southern drawl was captivating, and he oozed gentlemanly charm when he wasn’t knocking me unconscious or having me tortured. This guy though, he seemed different. He scanned the area for threats but didn’t seem to be one himself just yet. He glanced up into the cab and saw me. We locked eyes for a brief second, and he looked at me almost like he knew me, like he knew I didn’t pose a threat.

  He turned quickly and knocked lightly on the red doors. The man then slung his rifle behind him as he backed up to the entrance and the door opened slowly. A set of little hands reached out grabbing his belt buckle, and he cradled the head of a scared little boy who looked to be no more than eight years old. As the two tiptoed slowly across the street towards our truck, I heard Smith open the rear hatch.

  “Thank you so much. We’ve been stuck in that place for days. I didn’t think we were ever going to make it out of there. Thank you,” the man said and handed the little boy up and inside to Smith.

  “Don’t mention it, buddy. If I were stuck like that, I’d hope that someone was decent enough to help me, you know? Do unto others, right?” Smith responded as he sat the little boy down and helped our new passenger into the truck.

  “I’m Peter, and this here is my son, Grayson. Grayson, say hello to the nice people who helped us out.”

  The little boy didn’t reply. He only sat blankly staring past his father at the wall. He looked tired and dirty, but most of all, he looked how I felt inside…empty.

  “He’s been like this the last few days since, well, since his mother died. He won’t talk, and he won’t even look at me. I don’t know what to do,” Peter said resting his face in his hands.

  “Kids are resilient. He’ll be okay eventually, but right now I need to turn off the EMF, and we need to get out of here. I’m starting to get a headache from it, and I’m not waiting for Abby here to throw up again,” Smith said handing Peter a bottle of water before walking past me to return to the driver’s seat.

  “Abby, huh? My son had a friend named Abby. Hey Grayson, this woman’s name is Abby. Do you remember Abby from next door? You used to play at her house almost every weekend. Do you remember that, buddy?” Grayson just continued to stare, not even acknowledging that his father was speaking to him. “Please Grayson, just look at me. Say something, please,” Peter pleaded.

  I didn’t know how to react. I wanted to show Peter compassion and try to help him with his son, but I barely knew this man. If I met these two a few months ago, I wouldn’t have any problem jumping right in to play the role of superwoman and save the day. Now, I just didn’t have it in me.

  “Can I have your gun please?” was all I managed to say.

  “Huh? Oh sure, here. It’s not loaded. We ran out of bullets over a week ago,” he said as he handed the rifle over to me.

  I checked the chamber, and it was empty as was the magazine. I opened up a bench seat to store the rifle and found there were dozens of M-4’s, AK-47’s, and various Glock handguns all with full magazines. There were also grenades, smoke bombs and other various tools of war inside. I quickly closed the chest before Peter could see the contents. I was scared if he saw what we had, he would try to take it from us. I didn’t know if Peter was going to hurt us. I didn’t get the immediate feeling like he was, but I had been wrong too many times and paid dearly for my poor choices. I was not going to let my guard down, no matter what my instincts told me about this man or how bad it made me feel about the person I was becoming.

  “How far along are you?” Peter asked as he sat in the seat next to his son.

  Keeping my guard up, I replied quickly, “Oh, ugh, three or four months, I think. It’s a long story, and with the world the way it is, it’s hard to keep track of time.

  “Yeah, don’t I know it? The people at the FEMA camp in Pennsylvania where we were staying kept track of time very carefully. I always heard someone saying, ‘It’s only been ten days since the outbreak; the military is coming.’ Then it was, ‘It’s only been thirty-seven days since the outbreak, and soldiers will be here to help us any day now.’ The soldiers ca
me all right.”

  “They did?” I asked.

  “They sure did. They came and gunned down men, women, and children. It was horrible. They tried telling everyone the virus changed and was now air born, but they had a vaccine against it. They had everyone line up in huge snaking formations that seemed to go on forever. Then, they just mowed them all down. From the looks of what I saw after, people tried to run, but they were fenced in, they were trapped. There was nowhere to go. We only survived because one of the soldiers happened to be a friend of mine from college. He asked that my family and I meet him in an old church they were using for storage on the other side of the camp that day. I didn’t know why until I heard the shots and the screams. We ran and hid only to come back later the next day to find the entire camp evacuated of soldiers and supplies but filled with dead bodies. It was one of the worst things I have ever seen in my entire life. We’ve been on the move ever since, so that could have been a few weeks or a few months ago, I couldn’t tell you how long it’s been.” Peter said sitting back looking exhausted.

  “I should let you guys get some rest. I’ll bring some food over. We have MREs. They’re not great, but they’re edible, at least.”

  “Thank you for your generosity, Abby. We wouldn’t have been able to get out of there if you guys hadn’t had stopped. I’m sure of it.”

  “Like Smith said, ‘Do unto others,’ right?” I ended the conversation as quickly as I could.

  Peter seemed all right, and if his story were true, then the military was all in hook, line, and sinker with Brigantine and her madness. They had to be eliminating “the unworthy” or whatever bullshit Brigantine called regular people just trying to survive this madness. I just hoped her plans died with her.

  Now that I think of it, Peter’s story didn’t line up with Brigantine’s plan. She was going to use bombs equipped with VX nerve agent to kill the infected and any remaining people not under her protection. Why would she risk sending her mercenaries to a FEMA camp to kill everyone? Wouldn’t that be a waste of her resources? Something didn’t add up. Either Peter was lying, or Brigantine was. There was also the other option that a rouge group of Brigantine’s men or some ancillary military faction decided that the world had gone to shit, and they could do whatever they pleased.

  I didn’t know what to believe anymore. Brigantine did say the bombs they were planning weren’t ready yet, which not only made me hopeful for the future, but also made me long to get back to the cabin and find out if the underground apartments would save us from an aerial gas attack. That was if her story was the one I believed out of all this madness. I could say one thing for sure though; there was never a dull moment.

  Chapter 22

  Smith said the snow was starting to come down pretty bad. He suggested we pull over and park during the night. Otherwise he wasn’t going to be able to see very well once the sun set. Also, Smith needed to sleep, I wasn’t comfortable driving this massive truck in the snow, and I wasn’t letting Peter drive since we barely knew him. I was planning to sleep now so I could take watch when we parked to make sure Peter didn’t get the wrong idea about possibly taking advantage of our situation. I sat on the bench seat not only to try and get some sleep but also to protect the hidden items inside. I hated being so cynical, but better cynical than dead, right?

  I drifted in and out of sleep with the rocking of the truck. The horrible nightmares returned almost every time I closed my eyes, but I knew I needed rest. The dreams weren’t real, but not being real didn’t make them any less heart-wrenching, even though I was already living every mother’s worst nightmare.

  I was jolted awake by a sharp pain in my lower stomach. Almost forgetting where I was, I looked around and found Smith, Peter and, Grayson all soundly asleep in the seats around me. I took in a deep breath and smelled the overwhelming stench of decay that normally came with a large number of the undead. I sat up quietly and listened.

  Every so often, there was a thump against the outside of the truck followed by a soft moan. It appeared the infected knew we were inside, but they couldn’t figure out how to get at us through the trucks metal walls. I was pulled from my thoughts by another sharp pain in my stomach.

  It wasn’t a bad pain. It was more like a jab to get my attention. I didn’t feel like anything was wrong with the babies, but it seemed like they were trying to get me to be mindful of something around me. I knew the idea sounded weird, but that’s how it felt.

  Softly rubbing my belly, I closed my eyes and visualized the two little lives growing inside of me. I thought about being able to hold them. I envisioned playing with them or watching Chris and Tyler changing diapers. The picture brought a smile to my face, although I knew with almost a hundred percent certainty that future would never come to pass. I didn’t want to think that Chris or Tyler could be dead, but I couldn’t help but have those thoughts after what we’d all been through and what happened the last time I was at the cabin.

  I understood the reality was more likely that Brigantine’s men burned the cabin to the ground and executed everyone I loved. Hell, knowing Brigantine, she probably had her men slaughter the livestock we had and burned the crops as well. I was glad she’s dead, but I couldn’t shake the thought that none of us knew all of her plans or what she set in motion before Jack murdered her.

  Bombs could be falling from the sky and dropping deadly gas any minute of any day in the foreseeable future, thanks to that lunatic. Talk about happy thoughts.

  I climbed up front to the driver’s seat to see if I could tell how many infected were out there. The moon was shining as much as it could through the thick heavy snow. If I had to guess, visibility was about a foot or two. I hoped we were going to be able to drive out of the snow come morning.

  It looked like there was already a lot of the white stuff outside, and it was still coming down really hard. Who was I kidding? We have a plow on the front of this behemoth of a truck. It’s a multi-use tool if you will. It would plow over zombies and snow alike.

  There was a soft sound behind me where the other three were sleeping. I stood and almost peed in my pants as I came face to face with Grayson. He looked like he was still half asleep.

  “Mommy, I’m cold. Can I have another blanket, please?” he asked rubbing his eyes.

  I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wasn’t his mother, so I put my arm around his shoulders to comfort him, “Let’s get you settled back in and get you another warm blanket, okay sweetie?”

  His only reply was a quiet, “Uh huh,” as he turned back to the other end of the truck. I grabbed another two blankets and laid them on the floor.

  “Here, maybe it’ll be easier to sleep lying down here. We’ll use your coat as a pillow and get you all tucked in with these warm blankets. Does that sound good?”

  He whispered, “Thank you, Mommy, this is much better,” as he curled up on the makeshift bed I’d made for him. I tucked him in with another two blankets, and he was snoring softly in no time.

  “Thank you, Abby,” Peter said quietly as he sat up in his seat.

  “Sorry, I didn’t know you were awake.”

  “It’s okay. I’m just happy to have been able to hear him speak again. Unfortunately, he’s seen much more in the last few weeks and months than any eight-year-old should. I don’t think he’s handling it all that well. We didn’t know how good we had it originally at the FEMA camp. Well, until they shot everyone.”

  “Everyone has seen and done more than anyone should. It’s the way of the world now,” I said. “It’s how it has to be, which is unfortunate, but it’s reality. You have to make sure your son is strong enough, or he won’t survive.”

  My statement took Peter by surprise, “Wow, you must have one hell of a story to be able to tuck a kid in one second and tell his father he probably isn’t going to survive the next.”

  “You know what I mean. I assume you’ve seen what it’s like out there. This plague has made survival of the fittest the only way. There is no protect
ing our children anymore. If this world wants them, it’ll take them,” I said as I fought back tears.

  I turned and went back to the driver’s seat. I couldn’t bear to have this guy, whom I barely knew, see me cry. This pregnancy was really screwing with me. I was furious one second and a blubbering baby the next. I needed to get a hold of myself. I would have plenty of time to grieve after I was back at the cabin and knew who else I had to mourn.

  Chapter 23

  I sat for the rest of the night trying not to think about anything at all. I couldn’t sleep, and the sun couldn’t come up fast enough. I needed to get out of this truck. I needed to get home to the cabin and see what was left of it.

  The sun finally started peeking through the trees in front of me. Its magenta-colored rays silhouetted the partially frozen bodies of what had to be hundreds of infected. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes at how many of them were out there. I also saw the snow had stopped and there was now at least a foot on the ground. We were on some out of the way back road, so through the snow, I couldn’t tell where the road started or ended.

  It’s incredible how beautiful the world could still be in the midst of this deplorable plague. Macabre and magical all at the same time, the sun sparkled off the freshly fallen snow.

  The infected that weren’t frozen in place moved slowly in an effort to navigate the obstacles in their path, but with their bodies succumbing to the below freezing temperatures, they were almost a humorous sight. It was going to be fun trying to plow through the undead. I imagined their bodies shattering into frozen little pieces like an icicle falling from a rooftop.

  This cold may prove to be the best way to kill the infected yet. They barely moved and were incredibly vulnerable in this partially frozen state. I thought back to Troy and his serum that killed the infected back at the cabin. If we could somehow get a large number of infected in one place, say a quarry or a fenced-in parking lot of some sort, we could release the liquid on top of them. Eventually, the antivirus would work its way into what was left of their bodies. They all had various open wounds, so it might take much longer than injecting the serum directly into them, but it could work.