The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins]

by L. D. King

  Maurico did as he was asked. Before long, everyone was inside and the girls were making dinner. Roberto came downstairs.

  “This house will be right for us,” he said. “No one was approached as we walked through it. Once dinner is ready, we can eat. We still need to have our watch as we have done every night before. The last person on watch will wake up everyone at sunrise. I think the safest place to sleep will be upstairs at the far end of the house.”

  “Roberto, you chose well. I did not even see any dried blood in the street,” said Esperana. “This neighborhood should be safe. Come on girls, we have work to do. Our strong men have done their work for the day. Now they are hungry.”

  “Mother, can you help me over here, please?” asked Maurico. He stepped into one of the back rooms. Esperana followed him. Maurico closed the door before he asked her, “Mother, do you think you should be doing so much work like you are doing with you being pregnant?”

  “Maurico, thank you for being worried about me,” she said. “When I carried you, I worked next to your father on the pier until a week before I delivered you. I had to stop then. I’ve got a long way to go before I’m in my last week. Trust me when I tell you this: I will sit down when the work gets too hard for me. Until then, thank you for worrying about me. I love you, son. Now let me go to work.”

  The girls had brought the supplies that they needed for the night. They all had a great dinner together, even though the sun had not quite set. They all were tired from the day’s activities.

  Maurico took the first night watch. He was looking at the street from an upstairs window when he saw a man outside. He was standing in the street, looking at the house they were in. He didn’t move. He didn’t make a sound. He also did not look like a zombie. He was in clean clothes. He was simply standing there, looking at the house.

  Maurico ran to get Roberto. Roberto came into the room where Maurico was watching. Roberto stood there watching him from the second floor window. He told Maurico to get his gun and to go downstairs to wait for him. Roberto came downstairs with his gun as well.

  “What do you think this guy wants?” Maurico asked. “Roberto, do you think he is dangerous? Should I go out and talk to him?”

  “I don’t know what he wants. He has been standing in the same spot for ten minutes or so. At this time of day, people don’t stand around outside for long. Do I think he is dangerous? No, I don’t think he is. Crazy? Maybe.” He was quiet for a minute, thinking. “We’ll need to do something if he doesn’t leave soon. The zombies will be coming out. I don’t want him to draw them to this house.”

  “Do you want me to go out to talk to him?” asked Maurico.

  “No. Let me go out. I want you to stand next to the door, with your gun ready. If anything funny happens, I want you to be prepared. If you have to use your gun, don’t hesitate. Watch me, I’m going out to talk to him. Stay ready. Make sure everyone stays inside behind the door.”

  Roberto went out to talk to him. When he was ten feet away from the stranger, Roberto stopped. He asked him, “What do you want? Why are you here?”

  “My name is Sancho Holguin. I am with a small group of people which has been here for the last three days. We are five houses down the street. We watched you come into the neighborhood. We wanted to introduce ourselves before you found us. We do not mean you any harm. There are five of us. We would like to invite you to join us tomorrow.”

  “My name is Roberto. What are you talking about, joining you? We are doing fine by ourselves. We are not looking for a group to join.”

  “Roberto, we have a person in our group who knows how to operate a ham radio. He was able to contact a place that is offering safety to all who come. We are leaving in the morning. If you want to come with us, you are welcome. Because of the buildings that are burning, there are no zombies around. We have heard on the radio that the zombies don’t like the smoke or anything to do with a fire. For some reason, there is something about the fire that zombies don’t want to be around. I don’t know why, exactly. All I know is that if you stay in a place that has had a lot of buildings that have burned, the zombies won’t be there. You are welcome to come to our house to stay the night with us. Or we could meet you tomorrow on the street when we leave. Either way, we mean you no harm. We are offering you to come with us to a place that is safe for all of us.”

  “How can we get more information before we decide whether to come with you? We need to know more about this place. We have already set this house up for the night, so we will stay here for the night, but what can you tell us about this place? Where is it? Are they charging to stay? Will we be allowed to leave if we wish? Can you tell us more before we decide?”

  “Let me go and get my brother to talk to you. I will bring my wife as well so she can talk to the ladies. Is it all right if I come back with them?”

  “Yes, that will be fine with us. Please don’t take too long. I don’t know if there are any zombies around here.”

  “It will be no more than five minutes. As long as we have been here, we have not seen a zombie. That does not mean they are not here, but we have not seen any.”

  Sancho left to get his wife and his brother. Just a few minutes later they were back. Roberto had prepared everyone to meet them upon their return. They were waiting for them in the living room. Roberto had Maurico sit at the top of the stairs with his gun. Roberto met them at the door and invited them into the house.

  “Roberto, please let me introduce my wife, Jimena. This is my brother Isandro. His wife Tonia and their 10-year old son Lorencio are back at our house. This is Roberto. Shall we sit down so we can talk?”

  “Yes, that would be fine,” said Sancho. “Please take a seat on the couch over there, if you will. We have been waiting for you.”

  They sat, waiting. Roberto stood and introduced his group:

  “This is my sister, Amada Travieso. Her girls are Delfina, who is 21, and Domitilla, who is ten. Her husband, Juan, was killed by a zombie. This is Esperana Ortega and her son, Maurico. These girls are her friend’s daughters — Rosalinda, who is twelve; Reva, who is eight, and Lucinda, who is eleven. Please tell us what you can about this camp that you started to tell us about.”

  “Thank you. I am very glad to meet you all. First of all, this is my wife Jimena, and behind me is my brother Isandro. Isandro has a ham radio that he has been using to try to find information on how to kill the zombies. He came across a broadcast about the camp. It is called the Nebraska Survivor Camp. It is a large, safe camp for all people. As the name implies, it is in Nebraska. The camp leaders say that it can accommodate up to 3,000 people. It has enough land to grow food to feed everyone.”

  He continued, “They say they have a tall wall around it that is guarded 24 hours a day. When people first get there, they are placed in quarantine for two weeks to make sure that they are not carrying the zombie virus. After that, they are allowed in to the camp. We have a 25-passenger bus that we are driving to Nebraska in the morning. You are all welcome to come with us. We have enough gas to make it all the way. You can follow us in your pickup until it runs out of gas, if that makes you feel better. We will be leaving in the morning at 10:00. If you want to go, you are invited to join us.”

  “Do you mind if we ask you a few questions? Some of them aren’t necessarily about leaving. What we want to know is about Tucson.”

  “No, Roberto. It’s fine. Go ahead and ask whatever you want.”

  “You said you have been here for four weeks. Do you think we could survive if we were to stay right here? I mean, have you found enough food and water to live on?”

  “Like I said, this city is slowly dying. The food is running out. The way we find water is if we’re lucky enough to find a house that still has water in the hot water tanks or when it rains, which is not often in Arizona. We’re not the only people in this city. The competition for food and water is high. We don’t want to be around when the food is really starting to run out. We think a shooting war will lik
ely start over the remaining food. That’s one reason that we’re happy that we found the survivors’ camp.”

  “Well, let me ask you this. in our travels we’ve seen a bunch of graffiti everywhere. The way it’s written, it’s often hard to tell what it means. But there has been one tag that we’ve seen that is always clear and easy to read. Whoever did the tags used good quality paint and went over it a number of times so it would last. We’ve seen it on overpasses and on the top of the border crossing building. It says Survive with The Guardians. Do you know who the Guardians are? Or what does it mean to survive with them? If they can help, how do we find them?”

  “We’ve seen those tags in different places, too, but I’m sorry to say I don’t know who the Guardians are or how to contact them.”

  “Okay. Well, we had to ask. As far as going with you, it sounds like a wonderful proposition. Do you mind if we talk it over tonight? In the morning, if we have decided to go with you, we’ll be in our pickup, ready to leave at ten. If not, then we won’t be out on the street waiting for you. Thank you for taking your time to come over to talk with us, and thank you for inviting us to go with you.”

  When they were done, everyone gathered in the kitchen to talk. Roberto said, “As far as I’m concerned, this sounds like it is too good to pass up. They did tell us that if we want to go with them we can. I know it would be nice to stop running.”

  “Roberto, it does sound wonderful,” said Esperana. “And I guess this is as good a time as any to tell everyone my news. My reason for going is personal. I am pregnant, and it would be nice not to have to run while raising a baby.”

  “Mother, you’re pregnant? Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Lucinda.

  “I didn’t want to add to your worries. I only told Maurico a few days ago.”

  “I think we could follow them in our pickup for a while,” said Maurico. “If it turns out that it doesn’t look good, we can always go somewhere else. If we run out of gas, we can decide whether to go with them or start walking again. We have to think about Mother now.”

  “Maurico, you have a good point,” said Roberto. “I say that we should be ready to go in the morning. I still think we need to have our night watch, no matter what. Part of our watch will be to keep an eye on their house.”

  “You’re right, Roberto. I agree that we should go with them as well. Mother, what do you think?”

  “I say we all go. The girls will help me get everything ready to go in the morning. If the person on the last watch wakes us at first light, it will give us plenty of time to have everything packed up and ready to go. We will even have time for breakfast.”

  They made plans to travel to the Nebraska Survivor Camp with the other families. For now, they were happy that their running was nearly over. They slept well for the first time in a long while, and they were happy.

  Tomorrow their running would be almost over.

  They hoped.

  Chapter 11

  S.S. Oceania

  Pacific Ocean

  ADZ +105d

  As the Oceania had done every week for the last year, at 4:00 PM it pulled out of port in Los Angeles harbor. This was the start of another weekly cruise to the Mexican Riviera. The Oceania had made this same six-day cruise every week for the last year. Mazatlan was their first scheduled port. After Mazatlan, they would sail to Puerto Vallarta, and then on to Catalina Island, off the coast of California. Finally, the ship would return to its home port in Los Angeles on Saturday; the passengers would disembark, the crew would do any necessary maintenance on Sunday, and another trip would begin on Monday.

  The ship typically had 3,250 passengers aboard, along with 1,090 crew members, as it left Los Angeles. It was heading for its first port of call in Mazatlan. The voyage from Los Angeles to Mazatlan took all night. At nine o’clock the next morning the Oceania docked in Mazatlan.

  This particular cruise, however, was unlike anyone could have imagined. The initial leg of the cruise was perfectly normal, and when the passengers awoke on Tuesday morning, the ship was docked at Mazatlan.

  In just a few hours, however, their pleasure and happiness would turn into a nightmare for everyone aboard.

  The majority of this crew had been working together for the last two years. They had piloted this ship on this route many times. This time, however, the cruise would turn out deadly.

  No one could have expected what happened in Mazatlan. As the passengers were going ashore, a pack of zombies began to attack the disembarking passengers. The head of security was at the top of the gangway, seeing the passengers off the ship, when he saw what was happening. He got on the intercom to the Captain.

  “Captain Wasem, this is Walter in Security.”

  “Walter, this is Captain Wasem. How may I help you?”

  “Captain, are you watching the de-boarding of the passengers to the dock?”

  “I am on the bridge, so I don’t have a direct view of the dock. What is going on?”

  “Captain, the passengers are being attacked by some sort of ferocious creatures. They’re killing the passengers! I’ve instructed my staff to bring them back on board. There are maybe twenty-five to thirty or more dead on the dock. I have lost three of my security staff as well. We need to get this ship away from the dock. We need to leave the dead where they are. I do not have enough weapons to retrieve the bodies. Do you agree with me, Captain?”

  “Yes. I will send calls out to have the ship made ready for sea. I will sound the emergency signal through the ship and have the harbor tugs recalled to help us move away from the docks so we can go to sea. Please have your staff escort the injured to the infirmary. I am cancelling the remainder of the cruise. We will return to Los Angeles immediately.”

  “Thank you, Captain. There are some eight or nine injured that we are taking to the infirmary.”

  As they left Mazatlan, the Captain instructed the radio operator to contact the ship’s home office to notify them of the conditions on board as well as their intent to return to home port. The radio operator repeatedly radioed their home port, but their radio calls went unanswered.

  The radio operator told the captain he was unsuccessful; the captain, subsequently, told his radio operator to contact the United States Coast Guard. They did not respond to the radio call. The radio operator was finally able to contact the United States Navy.

  “S.S. Oceania, this is the U.S. Navy. How can we help you? Over.”

  “Oceania here. We are operating under emergency conditions. We are reporting up to 45 dead on board. We are making directly for Port Los Angeles at our best speed. Requesting evacuation of our wounded to mainland hospitals, over.”

  “U.S. Navy calling the S.S. Oceania. Regret that we do not have the personnel or air or watercraft to assist you. We recommend making best speed directly to San Diego for medical assistance. Over.”

  “Oceania calling U.S. Navy. Understood, you do not have equipment or personnel available to assist at this time. We will alter course to San Diego. Over and out.”

  As they had left Mazatlan, they discovered that some of the zombies had apparently managed to board the ship. The head of security radioed the captain.

  “Captain Wasem, this is Roberts in Security. I’m reporting that we have received the remainder of the ship’s passengers. Of those, nine wounded are on their way to the infirmary. We have three crew members deceased and five wounded. I have received reports that on one of the other decks we have up to 23 crew members dead. Some of their bodies are on board and others left behind on the dock at Mazatlan. It appears that there are 20 to 25 of the zombies on board. I had all access to the service deck sealed by watertight doors that have been closed and secured. This will keep the zombies that are on board away from the passenger areas.”

  “Thank you for your report, Roberts. I want you to instruct your staff to inspect the ship looking for any zombies on board.”

  “Roger, Captain. Will do. Roberts out.”

  Captain Wasem shook his head. Zombies
? This was unbelievable.

  “Captain to engineering.”

  “Engineering here, Captain. What can we do for you?”

  “We are returning to sea. I want you to trim the ship for best speed. I need any open watertight doors to be closed. We are steaming to San Diego to offload the wounded. Following that port, we will return to Los Angeles. Understood?”

  “Roger, Captain. We will trim the ship for maximum speed.”

  The Oceania was on its way under the best speed that it could make towards San Diego. The captain had no way of knowing that the nightmare was just beginning on his ship.

  The zombies started moving from the rear of the ship forward, killing anyone they could get hold of. Be they crew members or passengers, it didn’t matter to the zombies who they killed.

  The killings continued 24 hours a day on board the Oceania. Now, four months later, they were lost somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, adrift. They had been riding the ocean currents for weeks.

  The deaths continued on board daily, and the ship had lost the majority of its crew.

  The Oceania no longer had enough crew members to keep the ship operating. On the engineering decks, the zombies had killed every one of the ship’s crewmen that dared to try to keep the ship going. Without personnel to keep the engines running, they soon shut down.

  No one could enter the engineering decks to restart the engines because of the zombies. This threw the ship into darkness as it drifted without power. Nearly everything on board ran off of electricity. Anything that had to be pumped — pneumatic lines, hydraulic systems — was gone. Nothing could be cooked. There was no power to prepare any food. All the refrigeration units in the galley had stopped working, so the food was ruined.

  Dr. Noble Hajjar was the only one of the medical staff left alive. The remaining crew was in horrible shape. The majority had been killed. The pantry staff were all dead. Of the thousand-plus crew that they had started with, probably 150 to 200 crew members were still alive. Most of the staff were doing the best they could to assist the remaining passengers on board. Some crewmen took to their cabins, staying there and hiding from the zombies.