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

by Morris, SJ

  Unfortunately, what they saw didn’t bode well for the babies or me. It seemed like we were going to be in for a rough labor because the first baby was head down in the birth canal, but the second baby was still very high and in the breech position.

  I was hoping that since the first baby was correctly situated in the birth canal that once I gave birth to the first, the second would have to move into the birth canal as well instead of staying breech.

  Even as all of this was racing through my brain, the first question I had for Doc Bakers was, “Are they girls?”

  Doc looked at me with confusion. “I thought you said you didn’t want to know?”

  “I didn’t before, but now that it’s happening, I want to know. I need to know just in case something happens to me. I would hate to die, not knowing their genders,” I responded, now crying.

  “You are not going to die, Abby. No one here will let that happen, least of all me. And you are having two girls. Now, no more stupid questions like that. Do you hear me, young lady?” Doc replied, clearly frustrated with me.

  Chris looked at me, and all I could see in his eyes was fear.

  I did that. Chris was excited about the babies coming earlier, and I had to go and ruin it with a stupid statement about possibly dying. I knew it was possible; women died all the time during childbirth. Sure, the rate of death for women had drastically reduced with modern medicine, but thanks to Dr. Brigantine and her Perdition Virus, humanity was virtually thrown back into the stone ages. Sure, we had electricity, but there were not enough trained, ethical medical professionals to go around anymore. I had one war tested medic, a lab-rat virologist, and a cop turned nurse with only three months of on the job training to help me give birth to twins. How could I not be worried at the prospect of dying?

  The next contraction pulled me out of my thoughts and made me focus again on one single spot on the ceiling. If I could train my eyes in one central location, I could try and block out the pain. I thought it was working when suddenly Doc started rushing around, pulling my attention to her. She had put a heart rate monitor on my belly, and apparently, one of the heart rates was slowing drastically.

  I couldn’t help, so I chose to close my eyes and just listen to the rhythmic thump sounds from the heart monitor. One was racing, and the other was noticeably slower. I wanted nothing more than to will the heart rate to speed back up and make it so, but the last thing I remembered before everything going black was only hearing one heartbeat instead of two.

  Chapter 4

  Christopher Bryant

  One minute Abby was breathing through the pain; I could see her focusing on managing it as much as possible, and the next she was out cold. One of the two heart beats had all but stopped, and Doc Bakers started barking out orders to Troy and Jaz about sedation, securing airways and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t understand. The one thing I did get out of the commotion was that things were going downhill and fast. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just got out of their way. I felt like a coward, but I couldn’t watch them cut open the woman I loved.

  I needed to get more help, but we didn’t have anyone at the cabin that had any medical training other than the three people already in the room. I had to do something, so I ran upstairs to the kitchen where everyone was waiting patiently to hear any news about Abby and the birth.

  I burst through the door, and the smiling faces changed to fear immediately after seeing the anguish and anxiety in my eyes.

  “Does anyone have any medical experience at all? Do any of you know anyone that might be able to help? Abby is in serious trouble. I think they’re intubating her and one of the babies’ hearts stopped. I guess they are going to do a C-section since Abby passed out, but I do know they need more help. Anyone?” I pleaded with our friends as they stared blankly back at me.

  Merv pushed through the small crowd in the kitchen, “I know somewhere we can get help.”

  “Really? Where? How far is it? We need help now.”

  “Come with me,” Merv replied, grabbing my arm and pulling me out the back door.

  “What the hell Merv? What’s outside that’s going to help Abby?” I questioned getting frustrated with being drug out of the house away from Abby, who I knew needed me.

  “I don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea, but I knew this was going to be a possibility when she went into labor. I was hoping it wouldn’t be such an urgent situation, though. I guess that was stupid of me.”

  “Get to the God damn point, Merv! Abby is in there, possibly dying. I need to get her help. Now can you do that or not?” I yelled at him.

  “Yes, yes, I can.”

  “Well, get on with it! How can you help?”

  “I might not have been completely truthful with you about where my family and I came from,” Merv said quietly, backing up a little.

  “What do you mean?”

  Merv put his hands up, gesturing that he was harmless. “My family and I did come from Virginia, but we found a safe place, a community of good people who were helping others like you and your group here are trying to do.”

  “Where are they, and do they have doctors that can help? Right now, I don’t care about you lying to us, I will later, but right now, I only care about getting help for Abby and those babies because they need it desperately,” I growled at him.

  “I understand. We were feeling you guys out, making sure you were good people before we told you about the others.”

  “Merv, so help me God if the next words out of your mouth aren’t that you know where I can find an experienced gynecologist then you better not say them.”

  “Okay, well, about twenty miles from here is a compound in the Wawayanda State Park. It’s probably an hour and a half away from here on the quads. That’s if you don’t run into any trouble.”

  “And they have a gynecologist there, one that has delivered babies and done C-sections?” I asked now, having hope that I might be able to get additional help for Abby yet.

  “Yes, I can go with you and show you the way.”

  “Great. Pack light, and I’ll meet you out front in five minutes,” I said, taking off running for the surgical suite.

  I rushed in through the double doors, and it was calmer than the pandemonium I had left a few minutes ago. Doc was arranging some nasty looking utensils on a tray next to Abby. Abbigail seemed to be hooked up to every machine in the room with a breathing tube in, and heart rate monitors softly thumping. I could hear two soft swishing heartbeats, and the sound filled me with joy.

  “What’s going on? I hear both heartbeats, right? Both babies are okay?”

  Doc looked up from the tray with concern in her eyes, “Yes. For now, they are. I think Abby wasn’t getting enough oxygen, and one of the babies’ heart rates dropped drastically. Now that we have her on oxygen, both babies seem to be okay for now. I don’t know a hundred percent why she passed out, but we have her airway secured, and her vitals are normal.”

  “Merv knows of an experienced gynecologist who can help you, but he’s about an hour away there and back. Do you think Abby and the girls can hold on that long?”

  “I’m going to have to do a C-section right away, Chris. We’re preparing for it already. I’ve done these before, so I assure you I can handle it.”

  “I’m not saying you can’t handle it, Doc; I just want to make sure that Abby and the girls have the best possible shot. If there are any complications, which there already has been, aren’t you going to need more people here who know what they’re doing? Two assistants aren’t going to cut it. So, I’m going to go get this doctor, and as many people who know what they’re doing. And that’s final!” I yelled louder than I meant to.

  Troy and Jaz stopped what they were doing and just stared at me. Doc looked furious, and I almost regretted yelling at her, but then I thought about it. No, I will not feel guilty for wanting to offer as much help as possible. Abby’s life was on the line. So were the babies, and I wasn’t going to risk their lives for
anything. We have all come too far in this shit storm of a world to have it all end because I didn’t try my damnedest to get help.

  Doc took a deep breath and shook her head at me. “Go ahead, Chris. Go and get this doctor of yours. I’ll wait as long as I can, but I’m going to warn you, I’ll probably have these babies out safely and Abby resting comfortably by the time you get back, and your efforts would have all been for not.”

  “I hope you do Doc, but I can’t not try. You know that. Abby means the world to me, and so do those girls.”

  Doc walked away, ending our conversation, “Troy, can you get me the antiseptic solution so I can be ready to prep Abby, please?”

  I didn’t wait for any further discussion as I knew there was none to be had. I had no time to waste, so I ran to our apartment, grabbed my gear, and I was out front as quickly as my legs would carry me.

  Chapter 5

  Christopher Bryant

  I knew I didn’t have a lot of time. I hoped the Doc would really wait as long as possible to start the surgery on Abby, knowing that I was getting her some much-needed help. Doc wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize Abby or the babies, so I hoped we wouldn’t run into any trouble on the way. The infected can be unpredictable, though.

  Merv was out front, already gassing up two quads as I ran down the front stairs.

  “You ready to go?”

  Merv replied sheepishly, “Just finishing up here, and we’ll be ready to head out.”

  “You better not be screwing with me, Merv. That’s my family in there. They are counting on us to find these doctors, and they better damn well be able to help.”

  “Oh, I know. My wife and kids are still here, Chris. I would never do anything to endanger either of our families.”

  “Well, a week ago, I wouldn’t have expected to find out that you’ve been lying to all of us since you got here, so forgive me if I’m a little skeptical of your trustworthiness at the moment.”

  “I understand, Chris, but you have to know that in these times, no one can be too careful about who they trust. When my family and I arrived here, we had no idea who you all were just as much as you had no idea who we were. You know probably better than all of us that everyone you meet who is still alive in this mess could be a threat. The dead are the only things out there that seem to tell the whole truth these days.” Merv replied as he put the now empty gas can on the porch.

  “I get it, but you have to understand that if you’re taking me somewhere other than where I can find a doctor to help my family, you won’t be coming back.”

  With that horrible statement hanging in the air like a cloud of thick smog, we both sped off for the front gates. The first gate opened and closed behind us before the second began to open. I looked back towards the cabin and said a silent goodbye to Abby, hoping that I would be back with help soon. I glanced over at Merv, “I’ll follow you since I have no idea where we’re going.”

  “Before we get into the thick of it, let me tell you the basic directions, so if anything happens, you can still get there.”

  “Let’s hope nothing does happen to either of us, but I agree, let’s plan for the worst and hope for the best.”

  “Well, the quickest route is to make our way to Route 23 South. We take that until we hit 284 North, then once we get to route 565, we take Hales Hill Road all the way to the gates. The last I saw, they were expanding the gates to include a larger portion of Glenwood Lake, so if you make it to the lake, you’re sure to meet up with someone from my last group. The person we’re going to ask for will be Dr. Emily Nasser. She used to be the head of Obstetrics at some hospital up in New York state before the dead took over.”

  “Well, let’s not keep Dr. Nasser waiting.”

  The front gate was finally open, and there were no dead in sight, so we both took off down the long dirt drive that led us to something that resembled main roads that were paved. There were a few of the infected stumbling around the trees, but most were slow and severely decayed.

  I followed behind Merv as closely as I could, dodging old wrecked cars and other debris the recent spring storms had brought in. There were trees down everywhere. It’s impressive to see what happens to the outside world with no humans to clean it up. Nature was slowly taking back what humans had stolen from her.

  I checked my watch, and we had only been riding for ten minutes before we saw our first larger pack of the undead. There were about thirty at the base of a large tree at the side of the road. They hoarsely moaned as they clawed their dead hands in the air reaching towards what appeared to be a family of raccoons. Some were distracted by the noise of our vehicles as we sped past them, but most of them ignored us for the promise of a furry trash bear dinner. The stragglers that broke off to follow us were nothing we had to worry about since they were virtually skin and bones. The undead were definitely not as big of a threat as they used to be. Most seemed they had been turned during the first few weeks of the outbreak. Those infected had been exposed to a brutal Northeastern summer as well as a harsh winter. It was a true testament to the virus’ power that the infected were still upright at all after all this time.

  It had been a few weeks since we saw the last quick zombie that seemed to be a recent victim of the plague. I guess this long into the outbreak, there just weren’t that many humans left alive. That made our mission to get doctors to help Abby bring two babies into this world that much more critical.

  The sun showed brightly through the trees as we sped along the broken highways until we were nearing the end of the directions I remembered from Merv. As we exited Route 565, the sky became darker. It looked like we were going to be stuck in the middle of an unexpected spring thunderstorm. Who the hell am I kidding? We don’t have weather apps on our phones anymore, so every storm is sudden and unexpected.

  The wind picked up blowing debris across the already battered pavement. I was dodging a cluster of tree branches when a mass of the undead came into view. I was thankfully able to stop in time so I didn’t plow into the back of Merv on his quad when he saw the same cluster of infected and came to a full stop. They were surrounding an ambulance of all things. We parked the quads and Merv pointed to a three-car wreck that had long been burned out, so the cars were only metal shells of what they once were. I followed him in jogging over to the destroyed cars and taking cover, so we weren’t seen by the aggressive moaning pack of monsters.

  Merv pointed to the ambulance. “That’s the same ambulance the community was using when I was there. They used them to transport supplies from the main building to the smaller outposts they had been constructing to expand the settlement. I bet people from the Wawayanda group are stranded in there. We have to help them.”

  Smiling, I replied, “Well, that’s why I brought my rifle now, isn’t it? Can you try and create a diversion away from the ambulance? There are too many of them for me to pick off and I’ve seen you with a gun, the bullets would be wasted. The more of them you can get drawn away, the better.”

  “Sure. I’ll try to lead them back up the way we came and double back. I’ll have you know; I’ve been practicing and getting better. I’m not that bad with a gun.”

  “Yeah, well, let’s not give you any more practice for the moment. We need all the ammo we’ve got so we can get back to the cabin as soon as possible with the doctors in tow. Now get out of here, would ya?”

  “I’m going,” Merv muttered as he turned and ran for his quad.

  I watched as Merv grabbed a flare from his pack, lit it, and began waving it and screaming for the undead to follow him. I have never seen the heads of the infected turn so quickly and in virtual unison. The newer infected were fast, and Merv realized just how many of these new ones were in the group surrounding the ambulance as they sprinted in his direction. Merv’s face turned white as he realized this was not going to be as easy as he had hoped. He took off on his quad at full speed back the way we came.

  I hid as most of the infected gave chase rushing past me. It seemed as
if only the more emaciated of the infected stayed behind at the ambulance. It was as if they knew they were never going to catch Merv on the ATV, so they decided to stay with the possible meal that wasn’t going anywhere. If these things were now making intelligent decisions, we were all going to be in a whole new world of trouble.

  I had my silencer on my rifle, but I still waited until I could no longer hear Merv’s engine before I began to pick off the undead with headshots. If they were making decisions, I didn’t want to chance it that the newer undead had better hearing and could spoil my efforts of having a distraction in the first place. I’ve learned that you never can be too careful in this new shitty world.

  There were only ten infected that stayed behind, so ten shots, and we now had ten dead zombies littering the pavement around the ambulance. I gently knocked on the back door to the vehicle and whispered to the occupants, “Hey. You inside. It’s safe to come out. I’ve killed the undead, and I need your help.”

  There were some muffled noises from inside that sounded like talking, and a few moments of silence before I got a response, “How do we know you won’t hurt us as soon as we open the doors? What guarantee do we have that you aren’t going to just steal from us?”

  “I told you I need your help, why would I want to hurt you? Listen, does the name Merv Thompson mean anything to you?”

  “Merv? Is he okay? We haven’t heard from him in a while, and we were getting worried about him and his family.”

  “Well, I think I hear him coming back now, so you can ask him yourself,” I replied as I backed up to allow the doors to swing open.

  The smell from the back of the ambulance as the door opened was enough to make me want to throw up, and I’ve smelled some nasty stuff in my day. Blinking away the bright sun, three people slowly emerged from the back of the dingy rescue vehicle.